Released near the end of 1999, Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator is a western RPG styled after a Japanese RPG. Like many JRPGs it features a fairly linear story with semi-real time combat similar to Final Fantasy.
What I liked:
Interesting universe, good atmosphere and solid writing- The entire world feels very unique and interesting with a future medievel style very similar to Final Fantasy in a good way.
What I disliked:
Combat and combat skills- The combat system is problematic primarily because everything just takes too long. Waiting around in games like Final Fantasy can be aggravating enough but in this game, killing enemies seems to take forever.
What's worse is the fact that most skills have to be acquired by finding cards. Unfortunately these cards are extremely card to find. Based on the walkthrough, I was half way through the game and my characters still had only 1 or 2 skills to select.
Lack of side quests at the start- These are suppose to reward you with experience and points but because they appear at the middle and late game it makes the game feel padded and too drawn out.
Difficulty- The lack of skills makes it difficult to fight certain enemies causing more frustration as you have to grind to beat enemy bosses.
Conclusion
Great story, great atmosphere but shallow difficult combat meant that I ended up cheating, eventually lost interest and never finished the game. Overall great idea, great isometric graphics but very poor execution. I think if they had made the game smaller and focused on making combat more fun, cards/skills easier to find and side quests more accessible it would have been great. Unfortunately I believe the studio went bust shortly after which is a shame.
Showing posts with label RPG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RPG. Show all posts
Monday, 28 September 2015
Monday, 16 March 2015
Golden Sun 1 & 2: Game Design Review
Golden Sun 1 and 2 on the Gameboy Advance have received lots of praise from all the critics. Having played both 1 and 2, here are my thoughts on theses two games and the overall game design.
What I liked
Great graphics- The graphics are awesome bright and reminds a great deal of claymation models. They remain quite striking considering how old they are.
Solid puzzles- In generally, the dungeon puzzles are done well and feel fun.
What I disliked
Item Interface- Your character don't share an inventory pool. Instead everybody has their own items and you have to transfer items between them. It's a really strange and anacrhonistic method that serves no purpose whatsoever. There is no time in the game where the characters are separated or anything so why not just have a shared inventory like every single other RPG game since the late 80's!
Item storage- The number of items you can carry is extremely limiting. All your equipped armour and weapons take up one space. Within the game, certain special items that grant special abilities to help move objects or solve puzzles also take up a space. This leaves you with little space for miscellaneous items. There isn't any storage function either so you end up carrying around a lot of items, some of which can't even be used until the right time and place. A good example would be the game tickets and lucky medals which are to be used in mini-games. These games however, are located near the end of each game meaning you're going to be carrying around what seems to be something really useless for much of the game.
Combat instructions needs a bit of work- If all enemies in a group die, your characters don't attack another group. Instead they defend. I wish there was an option to change this.
Class changes- Class changes are fairly clear but the overall effect is sort of lost amidst all the numbers. For example, depending on how many of one of Djinn you assign to a character, you get a specific percentage of stat boosts and a change in abilities. In practice it's usually the case it's best to just assign the Djinn to the best character suited for it. For example, assigning Earth to the Earth character and Fire Djinn to the Fire character.
Djinns need to be reset manually all the time- For some reason you have to manually reassign Djinn if you use them. It's really annoying as for normal battles its usaully more efficient to use Djinn which deals plenty of damage to all enemies.
Slow travelling and teleport function only found at the end- You have to walk everywhere which is relatively slow when you realise you have forgotten something. There isn't even a vehicle to travel in either for most of the game. You do get a boat later on in Golden Sun 2 but even that is relatively slow considering the size of the world. In the final dungeon you do get a teleport spell but its something you should have gotten after the first town.
Generic story- The story is pretty generic. There were no unexpected plot twists or anything. It's pretty stock standard, save the world from evil bad guys. Every village has some minor problem, usually related to the neighbouring village or the surrounding area that needs to be solved.
Psychic powers are not creative enough- The psyhic powers in the game are basically the problem solving skills or tools seen in other games. E.g. a character will have a whip or tool will allow you to cross gaps. The most interesting and unique of them is the mind reading power which will allow you to read the 'real' thoughts of the NPCS. It's not really put good use in my opinion. There are occasions when reading thoughts will reveal some secret treasure or something but these occasions are far and few in between. I was hoping for more creative mechanics like an investigation quest. It could be cool to combine mind reading with a detective mini-game where you have find clues and pin down the real culprit.
Lack of hints- Some of the games quests and secrets like Djinn locations are a bit too secretive. Personally I think the game needs to be a bit more guided in giving you more hints on what to do next.
Underused linking- The characters and items do carry over from the first game so you get them near the end of the game. I do feel its a slightly wasted opportunity as aside from a few minor events, it doesn't really affect the story too much.
Conclusion
I don't know why people like Golden Sun so much. The graphics and overall presentation is awesome for the GBA as are the solid dungeon puzzles but lack of interesting story perspective and average combat mechanics is a real major problem. The innovations in gameplay are never fully taken advantage off and the RPG customisation never really feels substantial. Its not terrible but I feel there are better RPG games to play.
What I liked
Great graphics- The graphics are awesome bright and reminds a great deal of claymation models. They remain quite striking considering how old they are.
Solid puzzles- In generally, the dungeon puzzles are done well and feel fun.
What I disliked
Item Interface- Your character don't share an inventory pool. Instead everybody has their own items and you have to transfer items between them. It's a really strange and anacrhonistic method that serves no purpose whatsoever. There is no time in the game where the characters are separated or anything so why not just have a shared inventory like every single other RPG game since the late 80's!
Item storage- The number of items you can carry is extremely limiting. All your equipped armour and weapons take up one space. Within the game, certain special items that grant special abilities to help move objects or solve puzzles also take up a space. This leaves you with little space for miscellaneous items. There isn't any storage function either so you end up carrying around a lot of items, some of which can't even be used until the right time and place. A good example would be the game tickets and lucky medals which are to be used in mini-games. These games however, are located near the end of each game meaning you're going to be carrying around what seems to be something really useless for much of the game.
Combat instructions needs a bit of work- If all enemies in a group die, your characters don't attack another group. Instead they defend. I wish there was an option to change this.
Class changes- Class changes are fairly clear but the overall effect is sort of lost amidst all the numbers. For example, depending on how many of one of Djinn you assign to a character, you get a specific percentage of stat boosts and a change in abilities. In practice it's usually the case it's best to just assign the Djinn to the best character suited for it. For example, assigning Earth to the Earth character and Fire Djinn to the Fire character.
Djinns need to be reset manually all the time- For some reason you have to manually reassign Djinn if you use them. It's really annoying as for normal battles its usaully more efficient to use Djinn which deals plenty of damage to all enemies.
Slow travelling and teleport function only found at the end- You have to walk everywhere which is relatively slow when you realise you have forgotten something. There isn't even a vehicle to travel in either for most of the game. You do get a boat later on in Golden Sun 2 but even that is relatively slow considering the size of the world. In the final dungeon you do get a teleport spell but its something you should have gotten after the first town.
Generic story- The story is pretty generic. There were no unexpected plot twists or anything. It's pretty stock standard, save the world from evil bad guys. Every village has some minor problem, usually related to the neighbouring village or the surrounding area that needs to be solved.
Psychic powers are not creative enough- The psyhic powers in the game are basically the problem solving skills or tools seen in other games. E.g. a character will have a whip or tool will allow you to cross gaps. The most interesting and unique of them is the mind reading power which will allow you to read the 'real' thoughts of the NPCS. It's not really put good use in my opinion. There are occasions when reading thoughts will reveal some secret treasure or something but these occasions are far and few in between. I was hoping for more creative mechanics like an investigation quest. It could be cool to combine mind reading with a detective mini-game where you have find clues and pin down the real culprit.
Lack of hints- Some of the games quests and secrets like Djinn locations are a bit too secretive. Personally I think the game needs to be a bit more guided in giving you more hints on what to do next.
Underused linking- The characters and items do carry over from the first game so you get them near the end of the game. I do feel its a slightly wasted opportunity as aside from a few minor events, it doesn't really affect the story too much.
Conclusion
I don't know why people like Golden Sun so much. The graphics and overall presentation is awesome for the GBA as are the solid dungeon puzzles but lack of interesting story perspective and average combat mechanics is a real major problem. The innovations in gameplay are never fully taken advantage off and the RPG customisation never really feels substantial. Its not terrible but I feel there are better RPG games to play.
Sunday, 6 July 2014
Saturday Morning RPG: Game Design review
Saturday Morning RPG is an episodic RPG game where you play Marty, a guy who is given a magical notebook to stop the evil Commander Hood from taking over the real world. It's a homage and parody of 1980s shows and toys. Commander Hood and his goons for example are a paraody of Cobra Commander and his henchmen from G.I. Joe. The game really nails the atmosphere of the 1980s with its heroes, villains and supporting cast.
What I disliked
For me there are three main gripes with the game.
Combat System- Before combat, you can scratch stickers on your magic sticker book which grant you special bonuses such as extra health or magic. You have to do this by rocking your joystick around before the time runs out. I like the concept of being able to choose what bonuses you get before you encounter the enemy however but its repetitive and not necessarily fun after the 20th time you do it
During the combat rounds you rely on items as your main attacks and skills. Each has a limited use within a combat round. For example, you can only use the basket ball deals a small amount of damage and makes the enemy burn and can only be used a certain number of times. There's no way of restoring your items so once you've used all of them up you're out of options.
You also have a charging mechanic where you use your magic to multiply the damage your attack. There are three different methods of charging. One by button mashing, two by automatically charging and three by timed method. They are result in the same effect and its really about which one you prefer the most. Personally I find having 3 methods little bit silly and almost like the developers didn't quite know what they were doing so decided 3 methods
Blocking is also interactive and by pressing the block button at the right time, you can reduce damage and regain magic.
The game is clearly geared towards this charging mechanic because you get magic for blocking enemy attacks and have a special attack which charges your magic. At the same time you have limited items with normal weak damage.
Finally, when you attack some attacks require timed attacks, others require button mashing while others require you to memorise a sequence.
In a genre where repetitive combat is already a problem, all these factors serves to lengthen the combat more so then I liked. I think that's a problem here because it means that literally half the combat is charging your next attack.
Overall the combat system feels like a drag rather than joy. But I have would rather have a more strategic system rather than relying so many button presses. Its fine to have interactive bits in the combat but not all the time otherwise it becomes boring.
Atmosphere- As mentioned, the game nails the 1980s atmosphere perfectly. Because I grew up in the 1980s, I understand the numerous refernces to toys and cartoon series and the characters. However that's also the problem, the game literally revels in the 1980s. If you don't understand the references, I fail to see how the mish mash of 1980s characters and people would appeal to you.
Rather than focusing on various villains that parody several 1980s cartoons, they should have instead focused on parodying just one cartoon series and then slowly drawn the players into that particular world. For example, they could have just focused on parodying GI Joe and followed the fake TV series episode by episode. At the same time they could have some sort of encyclopedia or something to help introduce a larger cast.
Unfinished- The final gripe I have is with the unfinished nature of the game. Because its "Episodic". The developers haven't finished the game despite it being already out for so long and even on Steam. I'm looking forward to playing it but when will that be? There is no release schedule for the next episode nor any sign of closure.
Conclusion
Saturday Morning RPG wasn't terrible by any means and I enjoyed my time with it but the combat system, multiple button pressing really annoyed me. The atmosphere was great but even I had to ponder for a moment and try to figure out who some of these characters were parodying. I can recommend this to people who love RPGs and also those who enjoy 1980s cartoons but its hard to recommend to anybody else.
What I disliked
For me there are three main gripes with the game.
Combat System- Before combat, you can scratch stickers on your magic sticker book which grant you special bonuses such as extra health or magic. You have to do this by rocking your joystick around before the time runs out. I like the concept of being able to choose what bonuses you get before you encounter the enemy however but its repetitive and not necessarily fun after the 20th time you do it
During the combat rounds you rely on items as your main attacks and skills. Each has a limited use within a combat round. For example, you can only use the basket ball deals a small amount of damage and makes the enemy burn and can only be used a certain number of times. There's no way of restoring your items so once you've used all of them up you're out of options.
You also have a charging mechanic where you use your magic to multiply the damage your attack. There are three different methods of charging. One by button mashing, two by automatically charging and three by timed method. They are result in the same effect and its really about which one you prefer the most. Personally I find having 3 methods little bit silly and almost like the developers didn't quite know what they were doing so decided 3 methods
Blocking is also interactive and by pressing the block button at the right time, you can reduce damage and regain magic.
The game is clearly geared towards this charging mechanic because you get magic for blocking enemy attacks and have a special attack which charges your magic. At the same time you have limited items with normal weak damage.
Finally, when you attack some attacks require timed attacks, others require button mashing while others require you to memorise a sequence.
In a genre where repetitive combat is already a problem, all these factors serves to lengthen the combat more so then I liked. I think that's a problem here because it means that literally half the combat is charging your next attack.
Overall the combat system feels like a drag rather than joy. But I have would rather have a more strategic system rather than relying so many button presses. Its fine to have interactive bits in the combat but not all the time otherwise it becomes boring.
Atmosphere- As mentioned, the game nails the 1980s atmosphere perfectly. Because I grew up in the 1980s, I understand the numerous refernces to toys and cartoon series and the characters. However that's also the problem, the game literally revels in the 1980s. If you don't understand the references, I fail to see how the mish mash of 1980s characters and people would appeal to you.
Rather than focusing on various villains that parody several 1980s cartoons, they should have instead focused on parodying just one cartoon series and then slowly drawn the players into that particular world. For example, they could have just focused on parodying GI Joe and followed the fake TV series episode by episode. At the same time they could have some sort of encyclopedia or something to help introduce a larger cast.
Unfinished- The final gripe I have is with the unfinished nature of the game. Because its "Episodic". The developers haven't finished the game despite it being already out for so long and even on Steam. I'm looking forward to playing it but when will that be? There is no release schedule for the next episode nor any sign of closure.
Conclusion
Saturday Morning RPG wasn't terrible by any means and I enjoyed my time with it but the combat system, multiple button pressing really annoyed me. The atmosphere was great but even I had to ponder for a moment and try to figure out who some of these characters were parodying. I can recommend this to people who love RPGs and also those who enjoy 1980s cartoons but its hard to recommend to anybody else.
Jade Empire: Game Design review
Set in asn asian fantasy setting, Jade Empire by Bioware is a story about you and the current trouble in the Empire. It's the usual "Save the world" gimmick but set in an Asian setting.
What I like
Unique setting- The Asian setting is very rarely used in games and this sets it apart from many other games. I especially liked the cool looking statues in the game and the outdoor environments.
Fun character- The characters are all very interesting and unique. Some might say cliche but I genuinely enjoyed my time with them.
Martial arts- Who doesn't love martial arts fighting? This is one of the few games where you can actually see Chinese style martial arts in an RPG.
What I disliked
Unfortunately there are significant problems with the game which really drag it down.
Combat system- When you play the game, the combat and targeting system is for one on one fighting and simply unsuited for a brawl. For example, if there are three people infront of you and you attack, you will only hit one person and very rarely hit the other two or three. There is also sweep attack which allows you to knock people away and basically isolate and finish them off individually, again with a focus on one on one.
The targeting system itself seems to rotate through the enemies rather than focusing on the enemies closest to you or in front of you again feeling extremely out of place.
There is a free targeting mode but again this feels clumsy, you will simply attack in whatever direction you're facing, regardless of whether there's an enemy there. This might sound okay for the melee attacks but your ranged magical attacks in particularly will simple fly in a straight line rather than where the enemy you're targeting is.
Finally there is the issue of transformations where everytime you swap to a body transformation you will find the entire screen glow, the game paused and your character replaced by a demon form. This happens every single time making swapping between demon and human annoying.
Overall, the entire combat system is average at best and frustrating. Considering you're stuck with this for the entire game, it can get very frustrating when you're fighting mobs.
I wonder why they didn't just have a side scrolling fighting system like Final Fight or Golden Axe. I think that would have made the game much more bearaeble.
Bioware Morality system- Choices are way too black and white. Unfortunately nearly all the moral choices in the game are way too extreme. Here's an example, one of your characters has a good spirit and an evil spirit living in her. Part way through the game you have to choose between one of them to gain permenant control. The good spirit will co-exist peacefully with her. The evil spirit will torture her for all eternity. This is the type of moral choice you face in the game. Doing the sane normal good approach or the insane psychotic approach.
The same thing happens for teh ending choices which again feel like an extreme choice between good or evil.
Story pacing feels uneven- The first few chapters move somewhat slowly because of the hub cities.
The game has two hub cities, three if you count the opening village and a world map. Just like in Knights of the Old Republic you get a flyer to travel around the world map. But there are only two hub cities so its almost strange and pointless having such a large world map.
Once you hit the latter half however, things move at a brisk pace because it becomes a linear succession of levels. I don't hate linear levels necessarily, it just feels strange that it suddenly became so linear.
Conclusion
I like Jade Empire despite its very obvious flaws. I have to admit the combat is below average at best but the game has a unique atmosphere, solid characteristation and good overall writing. I would say try it at the very least, you might just get sucked in assuming you can withstand the terrible combat.
What I like
Unique setting- The Asian setting is very rarely used in games and this sets it apart from many other games. I especially liked the cool looking statues in the game and the outdoor environments.
Fun character- The characters are all very interesting and unique. Some might say cliche but I genuinely enjoyed my time with them.
Martial arts- Who doesn't love martial arts fighting? This is one of the few games where you can actually see Chinese style martial arts in an RPG.
What I disliked
Unfortunately there are significant problems with the game which really drag it down.
Combat system- When you play the game, the combat and targeting system is for one on one fighting and simply unsuited for a brawl. For example, if there are three people infront of you and you attack, you will only hit one person and very rarely hit the other two or three. There is also sweep attack which allows you to knock people away and basically isolate and finish them off individually, again with a focus on one on one.
The targeting system itself seems to rotate through the enemies rather than focusing on the enemies closest to you or in front of you again feeling extremely out of place.
There is a free targeting mode but again this feels clumsy, you will simply attack in whatever direction you're facing, regardless of whether there's an enemy there. This might sound okay for the melee attacks but your ranged magical attacks in particularly will simple fly in a straight line rather than where the enemy you're targeting is.
Finally there is the issue of transformations where everytime you swap to a body transformation you will find the entire screen glow, the game paused and your character replaced by a demon form. This happens every single time making swapping between demon and human annoying.
Overall, the entire combat system is average at best and frustrating. Considering you're stuck with this for the entire game, it can get very frustrating when you're fighting mobs.
I wonder why they didn't just have a side scrolling fighting system like Final Fight or Golden Axe. I think that would have made the game much more bearaeble.
Bioware Morality system- Choices are way too black and white. Unfortunately nearly all the moral choices in the game are way too extreme. Here's an example, one of your characters has a good spirit and an evil spirit living in her. Part way through the game you have to choose between one of them to gain permenant control. The good spirit will co-exist peacefully with her. The evil spirit will torture her for all eternity. This is the type of moral choice you face in the game. Doing the sane normal good approach or the insane psychotic approach.
The same thing happens for teh ending choices which again feel like an extreme choice between good or evil.
Story pacing feels uneven- The first few chapters move somewhat slowly because of the hub cities.
The game has two hub cities, three if you count the opening village and a world map. Just like in Knights of the Old Republic you get a flyer to travel around the world map. But there are only two hub cities so its almost strange and pointless having such a large world map.
Once you hit the latter half however, things move at a brisk pace because it becomes a linear succession of levels. I don't hate linear levels necessarily, it just feels strange that it suddenly became so linear.
Conclusion
I like Jade Empire despite its very obvious flaws. I have to admit the combat is below average at best but the game has a unique atmosphere, solid characteristation and good overall writing. I would say try it at the very least, you might just get sucked in assuming you can withstand the terrible combat.
Friday, 29 March 2013
Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy: PC Game Design Review
Recently in December I won a free copy of the Half-Minute Hero thanks to a twitter giveaway. Having finished it, I thought I would give my opinion of the game.
First of all it a really fun game. The game is an action-puzzler with an fantasy Japanese RPG setting. It uses a lot of existing JRPG cliches but in very much tongue-in-cheek light-hearted manner as to be expected from a game entitled Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy. I very much recommend this if you love Japanese RPGs or action-puzzlers.
It's worth explaining the very unique gameplay:
Gameplay Mechanics Overview
Each map is small and has a time limit of 30 seconds before the world is destroyed and you lose the map.
Your Hero starts each level at level 1 with whatever equipment you've equipped. Gameplay for the main Hero mode is divided into walking around a world map, talking to people in towns/villages and combat.
Like in any RPG, the goal is to defeat the boss.
World Maps- Walking around the world is similar to your standard RPGs. You have a top down view and move your character in classic 2D Final Fantasy manner.
Towns- In towns you shift to a side view, time freezes and you can chat to the people in the town.
Combat- Combat is straight forward. It shifts to side view and your Hero and enemies will run towards each other and start attacking each other rapidly. Each will automatically lose health based on their statistics just like in any RPG until one dies. Winning means your Hero gets experience and gold. Like in any RPG he will level up if he has enough points. Losing sends you back to the beginning of the level.
Time- You have 30 seconds which can be rewound at Goddess statues by paying gold. However the cost will keep rising until it becomes unaffordable.
A great deal of each level is therefore trying to do as much as you can before the timer runs out and then rewinding time to get another 30 seconds. Each level usually has a gimmick, quests or alternative routes you need to finish in order to unlock all the equipment and paths and is a great way to encourage replayability.
Although the last stage you'll play is stage 30-something, there are actually closer to 70 stages because of all the branching plotlines and alternate routes!
Graphics
There are two modes, the first is a retro style similar to 8-bit and 16-bit era games on the Nintendo or Super Nintendo. The second is a Neo-cartoon style which makes everything look like paper cutouts. Personally the new graphics look terrible and I spent all of my time playing the classic retro style.
Other Gameplay modes
Aside from the main Hero 30 mode, here are other other modes as well such as Evil Lord 30 (RTS style gameplay), Princess 30 (a side shooter) and Knight 30 (top down action mode). These are full game modes (relatively speaking) and feature about 30 levels each.
Should you purchase?
Simply put this is a fantastic game with whole heap of content for just US$10 and an even better deal if on discount! Of course, for me it was so much sweeter because I got it for free thanks to winning a competition!
Issues:
Here are some very minor issues with the game.
Other modes- Other modes such as Classic mode Evil Lord 30, classic mode Princess 30 and classic Knight 30 don't feel as tight and well implemented as the original. For example, the Evil Lord game has you summoning creatures but there's little control except to order them to charge in a direction. It's still fun but compared to tight puzzle gameplay of the first, the other modes feel much less polished and like extended mini-games.
Neo and classic mode Extra modes are different! - I could have missed it! The classic extra modes such as Evil Lord 30 have full games while the Neo-cartoon mode gameplay offers a single level in the other modes. Nowhere is this mentioned that the two graphic modes are actually different! I think its because the Neo-cartoon comes from one version of the game (XBLA) and the classic retro mode comes from another (PSP version).
One 'semi-secret level'- One of the path branches on mission 25 isn't very clear due to lack of dots connecting it on the- A strange move considering that's the only alternate path that lacks a dot.
Conclusion
I loved Half-Minute Hero. Its a fun challenging puzzle action game wrapped in nostalgia. I found it great fun and the sheer amount of content is staggering. Get this if you're a fan of RPGs or Puzzlers!
Alternative endings + Gameplay
There's an alternate path/ending you can unlock by picking up an item in cave on mission 25 which is highlighted in the level summary but seemingly can't be found in the world map. Once you have the item, to access the end from the main menu, press right from Level 25. This will move your cursor to the volcano. Don't forget to try the extra modes such as Evil Lord 30 in both classic and Neo graphics modes as they are different games!
First of all it a really fun game. The game is an action-puzzler with an fantasy Japanese RPG setting. It uses a lot of existing JRPG cliches but in very much tongue-in-cheek light-hearted manner as to be expected from a game entitled Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy. I very much recommend this if you love Japanese RPGs or action-puzzlers.
It's worth explaining the very unique gameplay:
Gameplay Mechanics Overview
Each map is small and has a time limit of 30 seconds before the world is destroyed and you lose the map.
Your Hero starts each level at level 1 with whatever equipment you've equipped. Gameplay for the main Hero mode is divided into walking around a world map, talking to people in towns/villages and combat.
Like in any RPG, the goal is to defeat the boss.
World Maps- Walking around the world is similar to your standard RPGs. You have a top down view and move your character in classic 2D Final Fantasy manner.
Towns- In towns you shift to a side view, time freezes and you can chat to the people in the town.
Combat- Combat is straight forward. It shifts to side view and your Hero and enemies will run towards each other and start attacking each other rapidly. Each will automatically lose health based on their statistics just like in any RPG until one dies. Winning means your Hero gets experience and gold. Like in any RPG he will level up if he has enough points. Losing sends you back to the beginning of the level.
Time- You have 30 seconds which can be rewound at Goddess statues by paying gold. However the cost will keep rising until it becomes unaffordable.
A great deal of each level is therefore trying to do as much as you can before the timer runs out and then rewinding time to get another 30 seconds. Each level usually has a gimmick, quests or alternative routes you need to finish in order to unlock all the equipment and paths and is a great way to encourage replayability.
Although the last stage you'll play is stage 30-something, there are actually closer to 70 stages because of all the branching plotlines and alternate routes!
Graphics
There are two modes, the first is a retro style similar to 8-bit and 16-bit era games on the Nintendo or Super Nintendo. The second is a Neo-cartoon style which makes everything look like paper cutouts. Personally the new graphics look terrible and I spent all of my time playing the classic retro style.
Other Gameplay modes
Aside from the main Hero 30 mode, here are other other modes as well such as Evil Lord 30 (RTS style gameplay), Princess 30 (a side shooter) and Knight 30 (top down action mode). These are full game modes (relatively speaking) and feature about 30 levels each.
Should you purchase?
Simply put this is a fantastic game with whole heap of content for just US$10 and an even better deal if on discount! Of course, for me it was so much sweeter because I got it for free thanks to winning a competition!
Issues:
Here are some very minor issues with the game.
Other modes- Other modes such as Classic mode Evil Lord 30, classic mode Princess 30 and classic Knight 30 don't feel as tight and well implemented as the original. For example, the Evil Lord game has you summoning creatures but there's little control except to order them to charge in a direction. It's still fun but compared to tight puzzle gameplay of the first, the other modes feel much less polished and like extended mini-games.
Neo and classic mode Extra modes are different! - I could have missed it! The classic extra modes such as Evil Lord 30 have full games while the Neo-cartoon mode gameplay offers a single level in the other modes. Nowhere is this mentioned that the two graphic modes are actually different! I think its because the Neo-cartoon comes from one version of the game (XBLA) and the classic retro mode comes from another (PSP version).
One 'semi-secret level'- One of the path branches on mission 25 isn't very clear due to lack of dots connecting it on the- A strange move considering that's the only alternate path that lacks a dot.
Conclusion
I loved Half-Minute Hero. Its a fun challenging puzzle action game wrapped in nostalgia. I found it great fun and the sheer amount of content is staggering. Get this if you're a fan of RPGs or Puzzlers!
Alternative endings + Gameplay
There's an alternate path/ending you can unlock by picking up an item in cave on mission 25 which is highlighted in the level summary but seemingly can't be found in the world map. Once you have the item, to access the end from the main menu, press right from Level 25. This will move your cursor to the volcano. Don't forget to try the extra modes such as Evil Lord 30 in both classic and Neo graphics modes as they are different games!
Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Game Design Review
Deus Ex: Human Revolution won't need much introduction for most players. It's a prequel to the Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War taking place 20 years before the events of Deus Ex. From a game design perspective, it's worth breaking down a little of what the hallmarks of Deus Ex have been in the first two games from my view point and then comparing them to the third.
Gameplay pillars of Deus Ex
First Person Shotter- The first two Deus Ex's were built on FPS engines (Quake and Unreal) and builds upon the FPS genre. You have guns and standard FPS controls. You shoot people and robots and they die or explode.
Exploration, multiple pathways and interactive elements- Levels tend to be sprawling and here are usually multiple ways to travel through the level. There are usually objects like explosive barrels, crates and terminals that can be hacked to assist the player again giving the player choice in completing the level.
Stealth option- Unlike most action shooters, stealth rather than shooting is usually a viable tactic and often beneficial in many respects as enemies can and do respond to sound and you will often find yourself surrounded if you go in guns blazing.
RPG Elements and upgrades- Your character is able to be upgraded like in a role playing game allowing you to increase various aspects of your character such as being able to run more silently or jump higher
Hubs instead of traditional levels- Generally each area is broken up into game hubs. Each hub is large interconnected area where you can visit bars or chat with the locals. The 'levels' in the game are either part of the game hub, such as different levels in a bar or areas that you travel to from the game hub. Your character will often return back to the game hub after you successful complete an 'off-site mission'. This gives the impression that your game is taking place in a city or organic space helps immerse the player in the environment.
Logs, stories and subquests- Very often there will minor plots and stories that can be gleaned from logs and computers located around environment. This helps give more substance to the world. Furthermore, certain facts of the world such as passwords or secret locations maybe located in these logs rewarding players for being thorough.
Does Deus Ex: Human Revolution match all of these requirements?
The answer is yes. Every single one of those things are in the game and in a fairly good way.
Game Issues:
However, there are a couple things I would like to mention that disappointed me about the game. Some of which has been part of the series since the first game. Let me say first of all however, this in no way diminishes Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's still very much a game I recommend playing.
Box simulator- The game has a heap of boxes and crates which serve various useful purposes mostly as a way to get up to high places and distracting enemies. At times it felt like I was playing a really expensive box simulator considering how much stacking and shifting of boxes I was doing.
Vent crawling simulator- Playing as a stealth character in the game means you spend a huge amount of time stuck in vents. I think I spent more than half my time in levels crawling through them or retreating through them. I'm not sure how else to make this less boring but maybe reduce the number of vents and increase the number of catwalks?
Yellow and Gold everywhere- Yes the gold filter is cool but after a while I did wish there were more colours than that. For example, maybe gold could be used for Detroit, green for Hengsha and blue for Singapore?
Melee combat could be better- Melee combat isn't bad but it does feel a bit inorganic since all you really do is head towards one enemy and watch a cutscene about it. If you have an upgrade you can watch Adam take down two enemies at once.
Also any melee combat regardless of whether you're sneaking behind someone or confronting them consumes 1 whole energy bar. This creates a rather strange situation where disabling three guards costs more energy than cloaking for a few seconds or lifting a large dumpster to chuck at them!
There are probably several ways I would improve this. 1) Having takedowns of various 'power levels' where you can slowly take an enemy down without energy or have a faster takedown where energy is drained. 2) Have a system where you can take down a group of close enemies similar to the Typhoon system but for melee. 3) The ability to drop down on enemies and knock them out.
Lethal and nonlethal methods- Being non-lethal is quieter and awards you more points if you knock guards out however at the same time but storywise, this doesn't really seem to affect much at all which is a bit of a shame.
More hubs and levels-There are only 2 major hubs. Detroit and China. Feels a bit of a shame considering how many different cities there are. The last few sections are linear levels and the revelations just come way too quickly compared to the drawn out nature of Detroit and Hengsha. A second or third hub would have really helped pace the game much more instead of the many linear levels that are suddenly thrown at us at the end.
Enhancement variety- I kind of miss the quirky nature of some of the other enhancements in the old games such as the exploding spy drones. I think more thought needs to be given to the enhancements in the game to make them more exciting and with greater variety. Maybe more drones or something.
More and better dialogue battles- These are definitely fun but compared to Alpha Protocol which had plenty of major characters and where each dialogue felt interesting, the dialogue battles here seem a little bland and it's sometimes hard to know whether what you're saying is working or not.
Linearity- Like all the previous games, the game is very linear except for choices at the end. Nothing you do is actually is going to affect the game missions in any real major way.
Nothing new- Throughout the game I got the feeling that I wasn't seeing anything really new in the series aside from the combat and dialogue battles. Everything else, the box stacking, the upgrades etc. the questing system are all gameplay mechanics we've seen before in past Deus Ex games. I'd like to see a more in-depth factional system in progress and different storylines with different missions. For me the linearity of Deus Ex in each game is a real sticking point for me. I understand the need for linearity but surely having multiple plot lines (even if they all converge on the same ending level) is something we can achieve more than 10 years after the original? I guess you could say Alpha Protocol has really raised the bar for other FPS/RPGs when it comes to choice.
Ending- We know the future of Deus Ex so it would be good to clarify what ending was actually canon. Why keep it a secret?
Conclusion
I enjoyed Deus Ex: Human Revolution with its robust combat system and multiple pathways in levels. However, at times it seems like could it use a bit more innovation in the areas I mentioned above. I think making this the final game in the trilogy would be fitting and the next game should take place in a fresh universe with a fresh storyline.
Gameplay pillars of Deus Ex
First Person Shotter- The first two Deus Ex's were built on FPS engines (Quake and Unreal) and builds upon the FPS genre. You have guns and standard FPS controls. You shoot people and robots and they die or explode.
Exploration, multiple pathways and interactive elements- Levels tend to be sprawling and here are usually multiple ways to travel through the level. There are usually objects like explosive barrels, crates and terminals that can be hacked to assist the player again giving the player choice in completing the level.
Stealth option- Unlike most action shooters, stealth rather than shooting is usually a viable tactic and often beneficial in many respects as enemies can and do respond to sound and you will often find yourself surrounded if you go in guns blazing.
RPG Elements and upgrades- Your character is able to be upgraded like in a role playing game allowing you to increase various aspects of your character such as being able to run more silently or jump higher
Hubs instead of traditional levels- Generally each area is broken up into game hubs. Each hub is large interconnected area where you can visit bars or chat with the locals. The 'levels' in the game are either part of the game hub, such as different levels in a bar or areas that you travel to from the game hub. Your character will often return back to the game hub after you successful complete an 'off-site mission'. This gives the impression that your game is taking place in a city or organic space helps immerse the player in the environment.
Logs, stories and subquests- Very often there will minor plots and stories that can be gleaned from logs and computers located around environment. This helps give more substance to the world. Furthermore, certain facts of the world such as passwords or secret locations maybe located in these logs rewarding players for being thorough.
Does Deus Ex: Human Revolution match all of these requirements?
The answer is yes. Every single one of those things are in the game and in a fairly good way.
Game Issues:
However, there are a couple things I would like to mention that disappointed me about the game. Some of which has been part of the series since the first game. Let me say first of all however, this in no way diminishes Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's still very much a game I recommend playing.
Box simulator- The game has a heap of boxes and crates which serve various useful purposes mostly as a way to get up to high places and distracting enemies. At times it felt like I was playing a really expensive box simulator considering how much stacking and shifting of boxes I was doing.
Vent crawling simulator- Playing as a stealth character in the game means you spend a huge amount of time stuck in vents. I think I spent more than half my time in levels crawling through them or retreating through them. I'm not sure how else to make this less boring but maybe reduce the number of vents and increase the number of catwalks?
Yellow and Gold everywhere- Yes the gold filter is cool but after a while I did wish there were more colours than that. For example, maybe gold could be used for Detroit, green for Hengsha and blue for Singapore?
Melee combat could be better- Melee combat isn't bad but it does feel a bit inorganic since all you really do is head towards one enemy and watch a cutscene about it. If you have an upgrade you can watch Adam take down two enemies at once.
Also any melee combat regardless of whether you're sneaking behind someone or confronting them consumes 1 whole energy bar. This creates a rather strange situation where disabling three guards costs more energy than cloaking for a few seconds or lifting a large dumpster to chuck at them!
There are probably several ways I would improve this. 1) Having takedowns of various 'power levels' where you can slowly take an enemy down without energy or have a faster takedown where energy is drained. 2) Have a system where you can take down a group of close enemies similar to the Typhoon system but for melee. 3) The ability to drop down on enemies and knock them out.
Lethal and nonlethal methods- Being non-lethal is quieter and awards you more points if you knock guards out however at the same time but storywise, this doesn't really seem to affect much at all which is a bit of a shame.
More hubs and levels-There are only 2 major hubs. Detroit and China. Feels a bit of a shame considering how many different cities there are. The last few sections are linear levels and the revelations just come way too quickly compared to the drawn out nature of Detroit and Hengsha. A second or third hub would have really helped pace the game much more instead of the many linear levels that are suddenly thrown at us at the end.
Enhancement variety- I kind of miss the quirky nature of some of the other enhancements in the old games such as the exploding spy drones. I think more thought needs to be given to the enhancements in the game to make them more exciting and with greater variety. Maybe more drones or something.
More and better dialogue battles- These are definitely fun but compared to Alpha Protocol which had plenty of major characters and where each dialogue felt interesting, the dialogue battles here seem a little bland and it's sometimes hard to know whether what you're saying is working or not.
Linearity- Like all the previous games, the game is very linear except for choices at the end. Nothing you do is actually is going to affect the game missions in any real major way.
Nothing new- Throughout the game I got the feeling that I wasn't seeing anything really new in the series aside from the combat and dialogue battles. Everything else, the box stacking, the upgrades etc. the questing system are all gameplay mechanics we've seen before in past Deus Ex games. I'd like to see a more in-depth factional system in progress and different storylines with different missions. For me the linearity of Deus Ex in each game is a real sticking point for me. I understand the need for linearity but surely having multiple plot lines (even if they all converge on the same ending level) is something we can achieve more than 10 years after the original? I guess you could say Alpha Protocol has really raised the bar for other FPS/RPGs when it comes to choice.
Ending- We know the future of Deus Ex so it would be good to clarify what ending was actually canon. Why keep it a secret?
Conclusion
I enjoyed Deus Ex: Human Revolution with its robust combat system and multiple pathways in levels. However, at times it seems like could it use a bit more innovation in the areas I mentioned above. I think making this the final game in the trilogy would be fitting and the next game should take place in a fresh universe with a fresh storyline.
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Bioshock: Game Design Review
Bioshock is an action RPG developed by Irrational Games and has won many awards. It's an action game taking place in a secret underwater city called Rapture and is a spiritual successor to System Shock 2. Here are my thoughts on the game.
What I enjoyed
Storyline and atmosphere- Great atmosphere and good story and great plot developments One of the highlights of the game.
Penalty free, customisability- I really hate games which force you to replay the game over again if you want to try a different build. I don't have time to replay a 20 hour game much less a 50+ hour RPG. That's why I really liked fact that you can recustomise your character any time you like by returning to a gene bank in the game.
Photo Research- Taking photos is a fun unique take on doing research and gaining special abilities.
Enemy intelligence- Enemies are smart enough to work together, retreat and use healing station.
Environmental damage- You can use water, fire, debris and oil to your advantage in the environment which helps even the odds. I also like how your destroy health stations to get health kits over the long term benefit of being able to heal for money.
What I didn't like
Difficulty curve is all over the place- Due to lots of ammo and health, the normal enemies simply don't pose any real challenge at all. Combined with Vita chambers which basically restore to full health and no cost and the main game itself is a breeze. The Big Daddys on the other hand are hulking, walking tanks that will decimate you within seconds. They are optional part of the game on every level and there really isn't any real reason to fight them except as an additional challenge of sorts and to make the final boss easier because of all the ADAM you can collect. As a result game swings between mostly easy (normal enemies) to brutally challenging (trying to take down a Big Daddy). It just doesn't work.
Morality system- Very token. You get the choice of saving a Little Sister or killing a Little sister. A and B choices. Very simplistic and just feels silly and pointless.
Slow switching- I don't know about other people but I found that switching between combat and plasmids (physical attacks and magic) a bit too slow and I wished it could be a bit faster. Combat felt 'jerky' rather than fluid at times because of this.
Lack of enemy variety- The world of rapture is very interesting and unique but aside from turrets and cameras, the humans and big daddies are your only enemies. I was hoping for some other variations like mutants as promised in the preview art. A real shame in my opinion since the idea that some humans/splicers have 'evolved' to become even more inhuman could have been really effective and interesting.
Lack of flavour text- Compared to System Shock 2 A lot of the flavour text is missing, there are no descriptions of things in general which I thought was a real shame. That being said, the atmosphere and posters do way more to bring things to life compared to the dull looking corridors of System Shock 2
Lack of mini-games- Aside from the hacking mini-game, there aren't any mini-games in the game. I mean System Shock 2 had a gameboy parody called the gamepig with additional games in it!
AI- AI knows when to take cover and will hunt you down or run away as appropriate. But for some reason they aren't they will still run directly into turrets and cameras in an effort to take it down. They are smart relatively speaking but still fall the same tricks over and over again.
Tactical options soon run out- About 60% way through the game, no new game mechanics or weapons are introduced from then on except for more powerful versions of existing powers. There aren't any new enemies introduced. This means that whatever tactics you develop from the first part of the game such as burning enemies and then shocking them when they cool off in water are just as effective in the second part of the game. It's just something I noticed as neared the end of game as I realised that hadn't really been killing enemies any differently for a long time.
Conclusion
Compared to System Shock 2, Bioshock is a more streamlined evolution rather than revolution. It is enjoyable but almost everything we've seen in this game is seen in System Shock 2 as well. There's plenty to like about the game despite its minor flaws and still worth playing even today.
What I enjoyed
Storyline and atmosphere- Great atmosphere and good story and great plot developments One of the highlights of the game.
Penalty free, customisability- I really hate games which force you to replay the game over again if you want to try a different build. I don't have time to replay a 20 hour game much less a 50+ hour RPG. That's why I really liked fact that you can recustomise your character any time you like by returning to a gene bank in the game.
Photo Research- Taking photos is a fun unique take on doing research and gaining special abilities.
Enemy intelligence- Enemies are smart enough to work together, retreat and use healing station.
Environmental damage- You can use water, fire, debris and oil to your advantage in the environment which helps even the odds. I also like how your destroy health stations to get health kits over the long term benefit of being able to heal for money.
What I didn't like
Difficulty curve is all over the place- Due to lots of ammo and health, the normal enemies simply don't pose any real challenge at all. Combined with Vita chambers which basically restore to full health and no cost and the main game itself is a breeze. The Big Daddys on the other hand are hulking, walking tanks that will decimate you within seconds. They are optional part of the game on every level and there really isn't any real reason to fight them except as an additional challenge of sorts and to make the final boss easier because of all the ADAM you can collect. As a result game swings between mostly easy (normal enemies) to brutally challenging (trying to take down a Big Daddy). It just doesn't work.
Morality system- Very token. You get the choice of saving a Little Sister or killing a Little sister. A and B choices. Very simplistic and just feels silly and pointless.
Slow switching- I don't know about other people but I found that switching between combat and plasmids (physical attacks and magic) a bit too slow and I wished it could be a bit faster. Combat felt 'jerky' rather than fluid at times because of this.
Lack of enemy variety- The world of rapture is very interesting and unique but aside from turrets and cameras, the humans and big daddies are your only enemies. I was hoping for some other variations like mutants as promised in the preview art. A real shame in my opinion since the idea that some humans/splicers have 'evolved' to become even more inhuman could have been really effective and interesting.
Lack of flavour text- Compared to System Shock 2 A lot of the flavour text is missing, there are no descriptions of things in general which I thought was a real shame. That being said, the atmosphere and posters do way more to bring things to life compared to the dull looking corridors of System Shock 2
Lack of mini-games- Aside from the hacking mini-game, there aren't any mini-games in the game. I mean System Shock 2 had a gameboy parody called the gamepig with additional games in it!
AI- AI knows when to take cover and will hunt you down or run away as appropriate. But for some reason they aren't they will still run directly into turrets and cameras in an effort to take it down. They are smart relatively speaking but still fall the same tricks over and over again.
Tactical options soon run out- About 60% way through the game, no new game mechanics or weapons are introduced from then on except for more powerful versions of existing powers. There aren't any new enemies introduced. This means that whatever tactics you develop from the first part of the game such as burning enemies and then shocking them when they cool off in water are just as effective in the second part of the game. It's just something I noticed as neared the end of game as I realised that hadn't really been killing enemies any differently for a long time.
Conclusion
Compared to System Shock 2, Bioshock is a more streamlined evolution rather than revolution. It is enjoyable but almost everything we've seen in this game is seen in System Shock 2 as well. There's plenty to like about the game despite its minor flaws and still worth playing even today.
Sunday, 14 October 2012
Alpha Protocol: Game Design Review
Alpha Protocol is billed as a Spy RPG and was released to somewhat disappointing reviews averaging around 70%. I recently played (and replayed it) and thought I'd share my thoughts on this game.
What I liked:
Dialogue system- All dialogue in Alpha Protocol has a time limit in the game and generally revolves around three responses. In place of the usual good, neutral and evil responses in similar games you instead get a professional response, a suave response and an aggressive response each modelled around the spy/agent archetypes Bourne, Bond and Bauer respectively. New options will sometimes open up new actions depending on the overall personality you choose.
As a result, the dialogue systems feels much more realistic when compared to Bioware RPGs such as Mass Effect. with its standard Good response, Neutral response or the Evil response. Too often the Good response is just too unrealistically nice while the Evil response is just an angry rude response rather than evil.
The resulting effect is a dialogue system which is a mini-game in itself and like any good RPG certain responses can and do effect how the story unfolds, sometimes in unexpected ways!
Perks- Just about everything you do will earn you perks which either give you more points to spend on your character or other bonuses. What's awesome is just about every major or minor decision you make has a perk attached to it. For example, being suave in your initially responses in the game nets you a bonus while being aggressive nets you a different bonus. If you keep tossing grenades, you'll earn a perk that makes you better at using grenades. If you keep evading guards or knocking them out, you'll earn perks as well. Similarly, if you decide to talk your way through guards rather than fighting them, you'll get a different perk. This rewards different play styles and choices and emphasies that there is no "wrong" choice; just interesting choices to make.
Meaningful choices creating different story- Almost every single choice you make has a consequence of some sort from a change in dialogue to potentially opening up new dialogue. The characters in the game will remember your choices even something as simple as what mission order you accomplish the missions in is mentioned! Its little touches like this that make the game much more memoriable, personalised and 'yours'.
Intel system- There's an system where you can build up a profile of factions and individuals allowing you to undercover their background, how they work, secret facts and damage bonuses! I love this system because it rewards people who try to find every bit of information aside from just simply giving you more items. It isn't very complex unfortunately.
Game design problems
The overacrching issue is that desite using the Unreal engine, the action and RPG elements don't necessarily mesh very well.
2 weapons only- You can't even pick up weapons that enemies drop. Personally I thought they should have allowed you to at least swap weapons in a weapons locker or something mid-level.
Stealth- The problem with the stealth in the game is the fact that it's billed as 'spy' game. When most players think Secret agent/Spy RPG, the first thing you want to do is sneak around like all movie spies do. This is in fact the wrong thing to do! The stealth isn't actually bad in the game but becuse of its RPG approach to the game, you have to sink points into it and wear stealthy clothing/equipment. Otherwise opponents will hear you. If you choose to improve your character's stealth, you'll get activatable stealth abilities such as going invisible and running silently. However the stealth ability is the most expensive out of all the abilities regardless of what class you choose! As a result I consider the stealth portion of the game imbalanced.
Killing everyone with the alarming going off as opposed to sneaking past them is a completely legitimate choice in the game and it won't really affect the overall outcome too much. In fact I found that charging in shooting everyone with loud guns and lots of grenades before they could trigger the alarm an extremely effective tactic.
Furthermore, you actually have to spend points in the stealth ability before you can get the 'enemy detection status' ability which tells you where the enemies are and if they've spotted you! And it's initially an activated special ability lasting only for 30 second before having to be recharged!
Initial missions can be a bit off-putting for players which was one reason why I stopped playing initially before recently picking it back up again.
Personally I think there are several ways to solve this problem with stealth:
1) Introduce better gameplay mechanics or abilities to assist stealth in the game such as making stealth cheaper and give the player a standard 'enemy detection' ability at the start of the game!
2) Remind the player that experimentation is fine and that there are no bad choice: Stealth is okay but equally running and taking out enemies before they sound the alarm is also an okay tactic
3) Create levels are larger and make stealth easier.
4) Reward stealthy approaches more through more story and experience points.
Console controls feel way more natural- Tried playing with a keyboard and mouse but they felt a bit stiff. Fortunately I do own a Xbox 360 gamepad which I plugged in and it felt more natural that way.
Ability selection needs tweaking- To change special abilities you enter the ability menu, select the ability and then return back to the game and activate it making it difficult to actually chain abilities together. Most RPG would allow to assign hot buttons/keys and considering how small the actual pool of abilities, this interface is way too clunky. This needs to be fixed.
Needs more variety and missions- Unfortunately despite your choices change the way the story is told, the majority of most missions are exactly the same regardless and you play the exact same missions. For example, in one mission I sided with one faction and got one introduction, in the same mission when I replayed it I chose another faction and got a different introduction. The actual mission played out the same except my supporting friendlies were different. Yes there were some minor differences but the amount of different content but it wasn't different enough for me especially on your third playthrough.
As far as I can tell there is only one different mission you can unlock in the game otherwise its pretty much the same.
Undistinct- I like the idea of this being set in modern times but it looks like a poorer version of other shooters and you'd think from the screenshots you were playing a poor version of a generic FPS. I think setting it in a slightly more futuristic setting with some interesting or cool looking tech might go a long way to making it more interesting. I mean he is a secret agent, so why not have some interesting spy gadgets rather than just boring grenades and guns?
Larger playing fields- A consequence of being developed also as a console game like a lot of other games is that the environemnts are very small. This game could really benefit from larger environments.
Conclusion
Overall I played Alpha Protocol 3 times trying to see how my decisions affect the story which goes to show how much I enjoyed it despite its flaws. Don't expect metal gear solid or your standard action game. Approach instead as an RPG action game. I feel very disappointed that there won't be a sequel because I think there's lots to explore in the backstory as well as going forward. Considering how cheap it is now, there isn't really any reason not to play it if like story driven RPGs. Hopefully Obsidian will be able to take its innovations and continue them in other RPGs.
Troubleshooting
Non-Xbox 360 controllers- If you have more than one controller such as a non-xbox 360 controller, you may find that the controls don't quite work as planned. You'll need to unplug all non-Xbox 360 controllers.
Sunday, 5 August 2012
Spirit Engine 2: Game Design Review
Createde by Mark Pay with music provided by the now famous indie game music musician Josh Whelcel, The Spirit Engine 2 is the sequel to the freeware game of The Spirit engine. Both are side scrolling RPGs with a semi-turn based battle system similar to many Final Fantasy games.
If you like the game play of Spirit Engine 1, you'll love Spirit Engine 2 which contains better graphics and better gameplay. The writing is quite solid and I quite enjoyed my time with the various characters in the game.
The biggest and significant change to the gameplay is that it has a slightly improved battle interface allowing you to memories and store attacks together. This allows you to create combos that get unleashed at the same time.
One important point to note is there isn't really gameplay innovation from the first one aside from some new skills. In that vein, I would still like to mention a few minor issues with the game design which I thought hold it back just a little bit.
Limited space in item shop- For some strange reason you can only sell items if the shop has space to receive said item. So if you're like me and like hoard your items and need to sell them off at once you might find yourself unable to do so.
You also can't compared items in shop with currently equipped items immediately (you have to click a button to view the currently equipped items) so you end up switching back and forth between screens trying to compare equipment value. Each shop only has about 7 items on average so it's not a big deal.
Lacks true replayability- Yes you can choose different characters but aside from the dialogue and one or two skills, I'm pretty sure there isn't any real difference. The dialoague is well written but this is quite a lnear adventure. Mind you this linearity also means the balance and variety is controlled and you're never really overpowered and you can easily level up if need be.
However I do think it could use a couple more sub-quests or sub-plots.
Needs more character flexibility and customisation- In my personal opinion rather than having 9 different characters but only able to choose 3 at the game, I think it would have been better to have just 3 characters (knight, rifleman and priest) and then just focus on really developing them or create more levels of the game. Alternatively, a party headquarters where you can swap your characters would be good so for example if you prefer to take on the next enemy with 3 knight you could do so.
Although you sink points into upgrading their existing skills and unlock more as you go on you don't really choose the skills and you don't really know when picking the characters at the beginning of the game what skills they have. Again, because of the linearity, and the fact that you have to pick a knight, priest and gunman type character there is no wrong choice.
Chain system isn't special enough - Basically its a way to program your troops so they act in unison and launch attacks together. It works perfectly fine but I was hoping for a more complicated combo system similar to Chrono Triggers combination attacks. As enemies change tactics occasionally I never really felt the need to use it as manually controlling my troops seemed more effective.
A lot of empty space at the bottom of the screen- I mentiond this in my Spirit Engine review but the 2D nature of the game meant there was as lot of space at the bottom third of the screen. I wonder if something more interesting could be placed there instead. Maybe a map?
Conclusion
I enjoyed The Spirit Engine 2 immensely. For a story driven person like me who prefers story over statistics heavy gameplay found in most western RPGs I have to give it a thumbs up. Considering its now free, there is no reason not to play it.
Personally, I think the Spirit Engine 1 and 2 deserve a special place in video game literature as two very well done indie games. Yes, neither have amazing million dollar production values but like a well written light novel, the tight story, gameplay, graphics, music and unique setting make them well worth your time.
As a reminder, the music is also free and I strongly recommend downloading it.
If you like the game play of Spirit Engine 1, you'll love Spirit Engine 2 which contains better graphics and better gameplay. The writing is quite solid and I quite enjoyed my time with the various characters in the game.
The biggest and significant change to the gameplay is that it has a slightly improved battle interface allowing you to memories and store attacks together. This allows you to create combos that get unleashed at the same time.
One important point to note is there isn't really gameplay innovation from the first one aside from some new skills. In that vein, I would still like to mention a few minor issues with the game design which I thought hold it back just a little bit.
Limited space in item shop- For some strange reason you can only sell items if the shop has space to receive said item. So if you're like me and like hoard your items and need to sell them off at once you might find yourself unable to do so.
You also can't compared items in shop with currently equipped items immediately (you have to click a button to view the currently equipped items) so you end up switching back and forth between screens trying to compare equipment value. Each shop only has about 7 items on average so it's not a big deal.
Lacks true replayability- Yes you can choose different characters but aside from the dialogue and one or two skills, I'm pretty sure there isn't any real difference. The dialoague is well written but this is quite a lnear adventure. Mind you this linearity also means the balance and variety is controlled and you're never really overpowered and you can easily level up if need be.
However I do think it could use a couple more sub-quests or sub-plots.
Needs more character flexibility and customisation- In my personal opinion rather than having 9 different characters but only able to choose 3 at the game, I think it would have been better to have just 3 characters (knight, rifleman and priest) and then just focus on really developing them or create more levels of the game. Alternatively, a party headquarters where you can swap your characters would be good so for example if you prefer to take on the next enemy with 3 knight you could do so.
Although you sink points into upgrading their existing skills and unlock more as you go on you don't really choose the skills and you don't really know when picking the characters at the beginning of the game what skills they have. Again, because of the linearity, and the fact that you have to pick a knight, priest and gunman type character there is no wrong choice.
Chain system isn't special enough - Basically its a way to program your troops so they act in unison and launch attacks together. It works perfectly fine but I was hoping for a more complicated combo system similar to Chrono Triggers combination attacks. As enemies change tactics occasionally I never really felt the need to use it as manually controlling my troops seemed more effective.
A lot of empty space at the bottom of the screen- I mentiond this in my Spirit Engine review but the 2D nature of the game meant there was as lot of space at the bottom third of the screen. I wonder if something more interesting could be placed there instead. Maybe a map?
Conclusion
I enjoyed The Spirit Engine 2 immensely. For a story driven person like me who prefers story over statistics heavy gameplay found in most western RPGs I have to give it a thumbs up. Considering its now free, there is no reason not to play it.
Personally, I think the Spirit Engine 1 and 2 deserve a special place in video game literature as two very well done indie games. Yes, neither have amazing million dollar production values but like a well written light novel, the tight story, gameplay, graphics, music and unique setting make them well worth your time.
As a reminder, the music is also free and I strongly recommend downloading it.
Sunday, 29 July 2012
Serious Sam: Random Encounter
Serious Sam Random Encounter by indie studio vblameer is their take on the Serious Sam franchise based off the Japanese RPG format. The game has wandering around a 2D map like other JRPGs. Every few steps you will enter into combat and have to fight enemies in a action-turned based format with up to 3 characters. During combat the game has two section. The menu selection section consists of you deciding where you want your weapon to fire, deciding to switch weapons or use an item. The game then unpauses and your characters carry out the action. You can move your charaters up and down the screen to avoid enemy fire and direct their fire more effectively. I think the 2D Graphics are spot on and definitely convey the 16-bit era type gameplay quite well.
From a game design perspective, it's a good concept but below average execution. So what went wrong in my case?
Combat is unbalanced- In the real serious Sam games, the game strikes a very sharp balance between enemies and your weapons. So while there are lots of enemies, you also have lots of ammo and your weapons are usually just enough to take them out. Unfortunately, in this game that balance is broken, there are often way too many enemies and weapons just don't deal enough damage.
Aiming is awkward- Just like in Serious Sam, enemies can come from almost any angle, allowing you to choose where you aim your gun might actually have had a detrimental effect on creating gameplay balance. I found myself focusing the guns in the centre and then finding the enemies from the top and bottom pretty much . The gun coverage is simply too narrow to accommodate all the enemies on the screen and I simply kept getting overwhelmed.
I understand the developers were trying to make it feel like an FPS but from a game balance and design perspective I think they should have reduced the amount of control players had over the aiming and reduce the areas where the enemies could wander around it. In other words, making it similar to a Tower Defense game like Plants and Zombies.
Need better pickups and more powerups- Some of the pickups are really fun but there are often in short supply. Furthermore because they are limited it's difficult to know when they should be used. I think one thing the designers should have done is created special abilities such as the ability to move faster or attack faster, the equivalent of magic spells in other RPG games. I think this would have really solved the entire problem of balance while increasing strategic depth and playability.
Conclusion
As one reviewer put it, it's a great 'proof of concept' but really needs some polish to be worth US$5 it was released for. I say just play the original Serious Sam game or get Serious Sam Double D instead.
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Parasite Eve: Game Design Review
Parasite Eve is a sequel to a Japanese horror science fiction novel by Squaresoft. The game is made using 2D backgrounds with 3D figures similar to the Resident Evil series and like the Resident Evil series has a strong survival horror atmosphere. The similarities continue especially since the main enemy is also some sort biological horror. I went in expecting a game similar to Grandia or Final fantasy but was surprised to find it extremely linear and lacking many RPG features. For example, you don't purchase new weapons, instead you get given them or find them at various points in the game and then you use the upgrade system to improve their stats.
What I liked:
Weapon/Item Upgrading system- The Weapon and equipment upgrading system is fun, it's an upgrading system that allows you to boost your weapon or armour at the cost of destroying your old weapon. You can choose to add on an effect of the old weapon (like poison) or the bonus stats of the weapon (such as the attack bonus). This means that you can end up with
Parsite Eve's Real time Combat system - From a game design perspective it does some interesting things but at the same time could use a bit of tweaking. The major problem (and innovation) with the game is probably the real time combat system. During combat you control Aya and have to avoid enemy attacks while waiting for your action meter to fill before acting. Once filled you can attack, use items or parasite abilities. It's not a bad system once you get use to it however there are a few problems with it which I describe
What I didn't like:
Weapon usage - There's a risk and reward element when it comes to certain weapons as each of them have a specific range and firing speed. Some of the more powerful but slower weapons take time to fire meaning fast moving enemies will often move out of range and receive minimum damage. This means of course switching weapons from short range to longe range weapons. What I don't like is the fact that switching weapons requires an entire turn. In the end I found the rifle was the best and safest option out of all of the weapons since it has the longest range. I think it would have been better if you could switch weapons automatically rather than having to waste an entire turn.
Damage spread - One of the weird things about this game is that the damage you deal enemies decreases if you increase the rate of fire of a weapon. This makes the total damage the same but the number of shots more. This is balanced by the fact that while being hit, the enemies are stunned so although you do less damage, you buy yourself more time. Personally I think they should have done what most other games do and just have the damage multiply with the number of attacks as the game is all about upgrading and allowing you to create powerful weapons after all!
Camera Angle - This is not usually a problem but there were occasionally minor areas where the camera angle wasn't quite. This was less of a problem than expected because the areas where you enter combat area are fixed so the developers took care to make sure the angle was good.
Slow movement - Dodging can be difficult but not impossible at times and its unfortunately inevitable that you take damage because of Aya's slow combat speed. It is I guess an RPG game rather than action game but still it would be good if there was a dodge button or something which allows you to simply move faster!
One character only - Having only one character makes it hard to retaliate if you get in a bad position. Too often I would get comboed to death in a corner by one or more enemies. To counter this, they probably should have increased the ability of your weapons to stun enemies. There is actually a stun system of sorts in place where enemies when hit pause in their attacks so if you have a fast gun like a pistol or machine gun you can actual interrupt slow enemies enough times to prevent them from attacking until your action guage has recharged.
Ammunition - There is an ammo system where every time you fire you use up ammo but you find enough ammo around that it's pretty much redundant.
Exploration Mode - Walking outside of combat is too slow. Unfortunately Aya walks at exactly the same pace as what she is when in combat. This is Way too slow when compared to how large some of the areas are.
Very linear combat and storyline - Like many other JRPGs, the combat is very linear and enemies will appear exactly in the same places. Similarly there is no real choice in the game. I think for a game which comes on 2 CD's there could be at least more bonus quests or other things to do to improve the variety. I think there was one bonus quest. That's about it. You do however get a New Game+ where you can keep your best existing weapon and armour I believe.
Overall
Overall I found Parasite Eve to be a good experience because I'm more of an adventure gamer than an RPG gamer but your mileage will vary. As an adventure gamer, I found Parasite Eve was very interesting and had some very smart characterisation. The game moves along at a snappy pace and has fairly small dungeons so I never really felt like it was padded out. As an RPG gamer, I was left wanting. You couldn't really customise in any real fashion which is a real shame and there wasn't really much tactics that I could really employ because of the relatively limited skill set you obtain and having only one character in my party.
I haven't played much of Vagrant Story which is the much more action combat orientated RPG from Squaresoft but from what I recall it addresses many of my complaints and provides a much more action packed complicated system. Although if I recall correct, it may have been a bit too complicated.
What I liked:
Weapon/Item Upgrading system- The Weapon and equipment upgrading system is fun, it's an upgrading system that allows you to boost your weapon or armour at the cost of destroying your old weapon. You can choose to add on an effect of the old weapon (like poison) or the bonus stats of the weapon (such as the attack bonus). This means that you can end up with
Parsite Eve's Real time Combat system - From a game design perspective it does some interesting things but at the same time could use a bit of tweaking. The major problem (and innovation) with the game is probably the real time combat system. During combat you control Aya and have to avoid enemy attacks while waiting for your action meter to fill before acting. Once filled you can attack, use items or parasite abilities. It's not a bad system once you get use to it however there are a few problems with it which I describe
What I didn't like:
Weapon usage - There's a risk and reward element when it comes to certain weapons as each of them have a specific range and firing speed. Some of the more powerful but slower weapons take time to fire meaning fast moving enemies will often move out of range and receive minimum damage. This means of course switching weapons from short range to longe range weapons. What I don't like is the fact that switching weapons requires an entire turn. In the end I found the rifle was the best and safest option out of all of the weapons since it has the longest range. I think it would have been better if you could switch weapons automatically rather than having to waste an entire turn.
Damage spread - One of the weird things about this game is that the damage you deal enemies decreases if you increase the rate of fire of a weapon. This makes the total damage the same but the number of shots more. This is balanced by the fact that while being hit, the enemies are stunned so although you do less damage, you buy yourself more time. Personally I think they should have done what most other games do and just have the damage multiply with the number of attacks as the game is all about upgrading and allowing you to create powerful weapons after all!
Camera Angle - This is not usually a problem but there were occasionally minor areas where the camera angle wasn't quite. This was less of a problem than expected because the areas where you enter combat area are fixed so the developers took care to make sure the angle was good.
Slow movement - Dodging can be difficult but not impossible at times and its unfortunately inevitable that you take damage because of Aya's slow combat speed. It is I guess an RPG game rather than action game but still it would be good if there was a dodge button or something which allows you to simply move faster!
One character only - Having only one character makes it hard to retaliate if you get in a bad position. Too often I would get comboed to death in a corner by one or more enemies. To counter this, they probably should have increased the ability of your weapons to stun enemies. There is actually a stun system of sorts in place where enemies when hit pause in their attacks so if you have a fast gun like a pistol or machine gun you can actual interrupt slow enemies enough times to prevent them from attacking until your action guage has recharged.
Ammunition - There is an ammo system where every time you fire you use up ammo but you find enough ammo around that it's pretty much redundant.
Exploration Mode - Walking outside of combat is too slow. Unfortunately Aya walks at exactly the same pace as what she is when in combat. This is Way too slow when compared to how large some of the areas are.
Very linear combat and storyline - Like many other JRPGs, the combat is very linear and enemies will appear exactly in the same places. Similarly there is no real choice in the game. I think for a game which comes on 2 CD's there could be at least more bonus quests or other things to do to improve the variety. I think there was one bonus quest. That's about it. You do however get a New Game+ where you can keep your best existing weapon and armour I believe.
Overall
Overall I found Parasite Eve to be a good experience because I'm more of an adventure gamer than an RPG gamer but your mileage will vary. As an adventure gamer, I found Parasite Eve was very interesting and had some very smart characterisation. The game moves along at a snappy pace and has fairly small dungeons so I never really felt like it was padded out. As an RPG gamer, I was left wanting. You couldn't really customise in any real fashion which is a real shame and there wasn't really much tactics that I could really employ because of the relatively limited skill set you obtain and having only one character in my party.
I haven't played much of Vagrant Story which is the much more action combat orientated RPG from Squaresoft but from what I recall it addresses many of my complaints and provides a much more action packed complicated system. Although if I recall correct, it may have been a bit too complicated.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Valkyrie Profile Game Design Review
Created by Tri-Ace, Valkyrie was released to much fanfare on the Playstation. It's a unique take on RPG's from a gameplay perspective and one which combines action and RPG fairly well. However I feel that Valkyrie Profile is a flawed classic because of the many bold but awkward gameplay design decisions that in my opinion tend to confuse the player and force the player to make uninformed choices rather than fun mysterious choices.
Keeping this in mind, let's go over the flaws:
Dungeons lack helpful descriptions - Dungeons get unlocked as you progress through the story but you can also revisit them to train. Unfortunately, sometimes its hard to keep track of which dungeons contain what sort of monsters and how you'll need to equip your troops.
Flawed time system - Each time you visit a location such as a town or dungeon it takes up time. When enough time passes you will move to the next chapter. As an RPG this places a real constraint on leveling up your characters appropriately.
Boring towns - Towns are generally places to get story or information about the world or quests or items. In Valkyrie Profile, because you craft items in the game menu the only reason you would visit a town or city is to obtain a character's special weapon and talk to people to learn more about the backstory.
Unfortunately the backstory isn't really fleshed out and you can't for example get side quests from townsfolk so there really isn't a reason to return back to them. Furthermore, visiting towns require precious time periods which could be better spent training giving you even less incentive to return.
Breakable weapons - Weapons that break permenantly are just annoying and they're very expensive as well. Worse, they aren't like items with limited use. Instead there is a 'chance' of them breaking. In the end you really only use them against bosses which I suspect was the intent all along or I would simply reload from my last save. It doesn't add anything to the game and I discourages players from experimenting and finding the best combinations.
Storylines could be interactive, link better and world could be more dynamic - Unfortunately, it seems the world of Midgard doesn't change enough if at all during the course of your travels nor does it seem to be affected in any way shape or form by any of your actions. I was hoping that your actions and level of success would somehow affect the wars between humans and new locations would open up open up. As I found out however, Valkyrie has very little effect on the human world. This is a really missed chance! Why shouldn't you be able to transform towns into cities or do something which actually affects the 'history' of the world or at least open up new side quests? There is from reading a game guide one or two secret side quests but that's about it.
Also once they join your party characters don't really interact too much with the each other or the real world either. Again another missed chance. It would cool to at the very least have a location or town or where you could visit and you could chat with them to gain clues or something. Instead, the only time you find out more about the character is after you send them to Asgard and you read about their exploits and replay conversations of them interacting with the gods and goddesses there as they level up!
Formation System could be better - Combat is blend of turns and action. During your turn, you push the relevant character's action button causing the character to attack. This works really well and is quite engaging. Unfortunately the actual formation system feels a bit limited because of this. The action buttons are mapped to the triangle, square, circle and cross buttons of the Playstation controller. As a result,that's the only formation you can make. This also makes it difficult to have 2 ranged attackers in your group because one of them will always be exposed to attacks and archers and mages take huge amounts of damage. This makes things somewhat unbalanced as a result.
Flawed combat magic system - Unfortunately its way too easy to spam group magic attacks if you have 2 or mages in the group. Usually this is enough to kill an entire enemy group unless they are resistant to magic. For me this created a imbalance in the difficulty where I would breeze through spamming group magic attacks until I hit the magic resistant enemies and find my warriors too week to do anything requiring me to retrain them and not spam magic attacks.
Poor experience system and flawed 'character sacrifice' system - Unfortunately the experience system is your typical 'kill monsters' level up system. You also get experience for performing certain actions or completing certain side quests. You can also purchase special abilities such as the ability to dodge or perform special attacks in combat. All okay so far. However the game has lots of characters and they only level up while in battle with you. When they join is also somewhat randomised so they might actually join in a later chapter where they arrive naturally underpowered. Yes, there are bonus experience points that can be stored and distributed to all party members but unfortunately it still isn't enough. The game therefore does not really provide incentive to experiment or use new characters since they will woefully underpowered when you use them.
One of the unique points of the game is that you need to send characters to Asgard to aid the war in Asgard. Sending experienced characters with the right statistics and abilities to Asgard will result in Freya, one of the other goddesses, praising your performance and granting you items and more points to create items.
As mentioned at the top of the article, the the time limit for each chapter also makes it difficult to train characters since there is only a limited number time periods. The only incentive to train new characters in fact is because you have to send characters to Asgard to help your forces in Asgard in order to get a better evaluation and more points to purchase/craft equipment with. Again, this is where the time system and the character sacrifice system sort of falls down. Because they made the game difficult, give you underpowered units and limited time periods, the game ends of punishing you for if you train up a set of characters too narrowly and neglect to train the other characters but also if you train too broadly. Its just difficult to know when you first play through the game whether you're doing things 'right' or 'wrong'.
Flawed reward system - Whenever you come across a special artifact, you are given a huge warning sign to surrender to Odin (thereby losing the item) or face a drop in evaluation. This is a way of controlling the difficulty in the game. As a gamer there are two problems with this. First the huge warning sign encourages players to think that the trade off between evaluation and item is quite significant and secondly you don't really know what the artifact does until you actually acquire it. Realistically, you should keep the item and then sacrifice it later in the menu if you don't really it need.
No New Game+ - Once you finish the game, that's it. You can't carry over your items and stats or whatever to make your new game easier. Again, hindering the player when they wish to enjoy the game again. Not many people would be happy to relevel up again. Furthermore, the higher the difficulty, the more dungeons you have to explore (note dungeons are NOT randomly generated). This would have been really helpful in encourging players in tackling the higher difficulties.
Bad ending - For a lot of RPGs the end of the Journey should be a powerful evocative one. Valkyrie just doesn't do that. Normal Ending is very strange and doesn't hint at the true story or even how to attain the true story. You practically have to read a walkthrough to realise there are 3 multiple endings.
Conclusion
Overall a game which has hints of greatness, replayability and interesting ideas bogged down by indecisiveness and quirks that discourage experimentation. I can only recommend it because it is so unique and treads new gameplay grounds with a wonderful art style, just don't expect a consistent polished experience.
Keeping this in mind, let's go over the flaws:
Dungeons lack helpful descriptions - Dungeons get unlocked as you progress through the story but you can also revisit them to train. Unfortunately, sometimes its hard to keep track of which dungeons contain what sort of monsters and how you'll need to equip your troops.
Flawed time system - Each time you visit a location such as a town or dungeon it takes up time. When enough time passes you will move to the next chapter. As an RPG this places a real constraint on leveling up your characters appropriately.
Boring towns - Towns are generally places to get story or information about the world or quests or items. In Valkyrie Profile, because you craft items in the game menu the only reason you would visit a town or city is to obtain a character's special weapon and talk to people to learn more about the backstory.
Unfortunately the backstory isn't really fleshed out and you can't for example get side quests from townsfolk so there really isn't a reason to return back to them. Furthermore, visiting towns require precious time periods which could be better spent training giving you even less incentive to return.
Breakable weapons - Weapons that break permenantly are just annoying and they're very expensive as well. Worse, they aren't like items with limited use. Instead there is a 'chance' of them breaking. In the end you really only use them against bosses which I suspect was the intent all along or I would simply reload from my last save. It doesn't add anything to the game and I discourages players from experimenting and finding the best combinations.
Storylines could be interactive, link better and world could be more dynamic - Unfortunately, it seems the world of Midgard doesn't change enough if at all during the course of your travels nor does it seem to be affected in any way shape or form by any of your actions. I was hoping that your actions and level of success would somehow affect the wars between humans and new locations would open up open up. As I found out however, Valkyrie has very little effect on the human world. This is a really missed chance! Why shouldn't you be able to transform towns into cities or do something which actually affects the 'history' of the world or at least open up new side quests? There is from reading a game guide one or two secret side quests but that's about it.
Also once they join your party characters don't really interact too much with the each other or the real world either. Again another missed chance. It would cool to at the very least have a location or town or where you could visit and you could chat with them to gain clues or something. Instead, the only time you find out more about the character is after you send them to Asgard and you read about their exploits and replay conversations of them interacting with the gods and goddesses there as they level up!
Formation System could be better - Combat is blend of turns and action. During your turn, you push the relevant character's action button causing the character to attack. This works really well and is quite engaging. Unfortunately the actual formation system feels a bit limited because of this. The action buttons are mapped to the triangle, square, circle and cross buttons of the Playstation controller. As a result,that's the only formation you can make. This also makes it difficult to have 2 ranged attackers in your group because one of them will always be exposed to attacks and archers and mages take huge amounts of damage. This makes things somewhat unbalanced as a result.
Flawed combat magic system - Unfortunately its way too easy to spam group magic attacks if you have 2 or mages in the group. Usually this is enough to kill an entire enemy group unless they are resistant to magic. For me this created a imbalance in the difficulty where I would breeze through spamming group magic attacks until I hit the magic resistant enemies and find my warriors too week to do anything requiring me to retrain them and not spam magic attacks.
Poor experience system and flawed 'character sacrifice' system - Unfortunately the experience system is your typical 'kill monsters' level up system. You also get experience for performing certain actions or completing certain side quests. You can also purchase special abilities such as the ability to dodge or perform special attacks in combat. All okay so far. However the game has lots of characters and they only level up while in battle with you. When they join is also somewhat randomised so they might actually join in a later chapter where they arrive naturally underpowered. Yes, there are bonus experience points that can be stored and distributed to all party members but unfortunately it still isn't enough. The game therefore does not really provide incentive to experiment or use new characters since they will woefully underpowered when you use them.
One of the unique points of the game is that you need to send characters to Asgard to aid the war in Asgard. Sending experienced characters with the right statistics and abilities to Asgard will result in Freya, one of the other goddesses, praising your performance and granting you items and more points to create items.
As mentioned at the top of the article, the the time limit for each chapter also makes it difficult to train characters since there is only a limited number time periods. The only incentive to train new characters in fact is because you have to send characters to Asgard to help your forces in Asgard in order to get a better evaluation and more points to purchase/craft equipment with. Again, this is where the time system and the character sacrifice system sort of falls down. Because they made the game difficult, give you underpowered units and limited time periods, the game ends of punishing you for if you train up a set of characters too narrowly and neglect to train the other characters but also if you train too broadly. Its just difficult to know when you first play through the game whether you're doing things 'right' or 'wrong'.
Flawed reward system - Whenever you come across a special artifact, you are given a huge warning sign to surrender to Odin (thereby losing the item) or face a drop in evaluation. This is a way of controlling the difficulty in the game. As a gamer there are two problems with this. First the huge warning sign encourages players to think that the trade off between evaluation and item is quite significant and secondly you don't really know what the artifact does until you actually acquire it. Realistically, you should keep the item and then sacrifice it later in the menu if you don't really it need.
No New Game+ - Once you finish the game, that's it. You can't carry over your items and stats or whatever to make your new game easier. Again, hindering the player when they wish to enjoy the game again. Not many people would be happy to relevel up again. Furthermore, the higher the difficulty, the more dungeons you have to explore (note dungeons are NOT randomly generated). This would have been really helpful in encourging players in tackling the higher difficulties.
Bad ending - For a lot of RPGs the end of the Journey should be a powerful evocative one. Valkyrie just doesn't do that. Normal Ending is very strange and doesn't hint at the true story or even how to attain the true story. You practically have to read a walkthrough to realise there are 3 multiple endings.
Conclusion
Overall a game which has hints of greatness, replayability and interesting ideas bogged down by indecisiveness and quirks that discourage experimentation. I can only recommend it because it is so unique and treads new gameplay grounds with a wonderful art style, just don't expect a consistent polished experience.
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Chrono Cross: Game Design Review
Chronocross is a game set after Chrono Trigger featuring a new cast of characters. The creator of Chrono cross mentioned that Chrono Cross is not a true sequel but a story set in the same universe. They deliberately wanted to experiment with new systems and new ways to storytelling. First of all, let me say that I enjoyed Chronocross. It had wonderful art direction, a story which was entertaining (if somewhat hard to follow someties) and lots of unique characters that could join your party including a fisherman, a chef, a gothic rocker and living plants. Two living plants in fact.
From my point of view however there are some problems with the gameplay mechanics which mar the experience for me:
1) Too many characters- The extremely huge number of characters meant that most characters seemed a bit too similar to other characters and also the plotlines tended to dissolve into nothing.
2) The field system is difficult to control. In combat, the uses a field system where everytime you use an mobility, its 'colour' affects the overall battle field. There are 3 field color slots and the latest attack will push the oldest colour out to replace it. The more a field is your character's colour, the more effective your character is and attacks of that specific colour. Similarly, you get disadvantaged if the field is the opposite. Its possible to control this, just really really hard as you rarely have all of your characters able to attack in a row meaning the enemy can often screw up the field colour you're going for. There are certain characters that can have specific powers to change the field colour but they aren't plentiful enough.
3) Summoning ultimate creatures is difficult requiring a field to be completely the same colour and their presence is also like a secret. I think I found like 2 in the entire game.
4) Tech system from Chrono Trigger is practically a secret as well. The ability to combine certain special attacks to make more powerful attacks if you had the correct team of characters is still there but only a very few techs exist. Which is a bit of a shame, because it would made the battling a lot more fun. Again, I played the entire game without actually using one!
5) Lack of traditional exp system was a step in the right direction because this meant that the game designers could control the experience and ensure the bosses were never too powerful for you as if I'm not mistaken all your characters level up including the ones you haven't been using. In the game, however once you beat a boss, there is a small window where you can random bonus ability points by fighting normal enemies. Supposedly this means your favourite characters will then gain more points and be more powerful. I'm just not sure if this is quite the right way of going about the system as maybe the character you are currently using aren't quite the right characters. Also these bonus points are also awarded only to character which will still alive at the end of the battle. I feel that some of skill point system where you can choose which characters to award bonus too might be better.
6) Unclear benefits when using elements of different levels. There are differences but I'm still not quite sure how setting different element levels will enhance or penalise you or how much benefit you get from setting an element above or below what you already have.
7) Actions that affect two worlds or reveal secrets should be clearer - Certain special actions require you to do something in one world to affect the other. Sometimes this is fairly clear but other times this isn't clear particularly when you're looking for optional areas which can unlock secrets. Some might argue that's part of it being secret but some actions are frankly way too obscure. Some are event-limited so if events in the story pass, you can't get the secret anymore.
Overall I would class it as a flawed classic. It's still very enjoyable with fairly unique world just those mechanics mentioned above that really annoy me.
From my point of view however there are some problems with the gameplay mechanics which mar the experience for me:
1) Too many characters- The extremely huge number of characters meant that most characters seemed a bit too similar to other characters and also the plotlines tended to dissolve into nothing.
2) The field system is difficult to control. In combat, the uses a field system where everytime you use an mobility, its 'colour' affects the overall battle field. There are 3 field color slots and the latest attack will push the oldest colour out to replace it. The more a field is your character's colour, the more effective your character is and attacks of that specific colour. Similarly, you get disadvantaged if the field is the opposite. Its possible to control this, just really really hard as you rarely have all of your characters able to attack in a row meaning the enemy can often screw up the field colour you're going for. There are certain characters that can have specific powers to change the field colour but they aren't plentiful enough.
3) Summoning ultimate creatures is difficult requiring a field to be completely the same colour and their presence is also like a secret. I think I found like 2 in the entire game.
4) Tech system from Chrono Trigger is practically a secret as well. The ability to combine certain special attacks to make more powerful attacks if you had the correct team of characters is still there but only a very few techs exist. Which is a bit of a shame, because it would made the battling a lot more fun. Again, I played the entire game without actually using one!
5) Lack of traditional exp system was a step in the right direction because this meant that the game designers could control the experience and ensure the bosses were never too powerful for you as if I'm not mistaken all your characters level up including the ones you haven't been using. In the game, however once you beat a boss, there is a small window where you can random bonus ability points by fighting normal enemies. Supposedly this means your favourite characters will then gain more points and be more powerful. I'm just not sure if this is quite the right way of going about the system as maybe the character you are currently using aren't quite the right characters. Also these bonus points are also awarded only to character which will still alive at the end of the battle. I feel that some of skill point system where you can choose which characters to award bonus too might be better.
6) Unclear benefits when using elements of different levels. There are differences but I'm still not quite sure how setting different element levels will enhance or penalise you or how much benefit you get from setting an element above or below what you already have.
7) Actions that affect two worlds or reveal secrets should be clearer - Certain special actions require you to do something in one world to affect the other. Sometimes this is fairly clear but other times this isn't clear particularly when you're looking for optional areas which can unlock secrets. Some might argue that's part of it being secret but some actions are frankly way too obscure. Some are event-limited so if events in the story pass, you can't get the secret anymore.
Overall I would class it as a flawed classic. It's still very enjoyable with fairly unique world just those mechanics mentioned above that really annoy me.
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Resource Hunting and Item Forging in RPGs: My proposal
In my previous review of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey I mentioned that hunting for forma which is used to create weapons, armour and items is hard. I actually like the idea of hunting for resources and combining them to form swords and items. A good game should allow a good balance of experimentation and discovery keeping the player interested rather than forcing the player to repetitively hunt for items.
What then would I consider an ideal system for hunting and forging? Well here's my list of good things a good forging game should have.
1) Automatic markers and identifiers - Once you've found the monster parts/resources, the game should make it easy to find these resources again through an auto bookmark system or good automapping system. It should not be up to the player to mark the map.
2) Automatic recording receipes or hints - Whenever you find a hint or part of receipe this should automatically be recorded in your receipe
3) Less resources the better - If you require 10 leather hides to make something it means the player have to fight monsters at least 10 times, I think the maximum requirements should be no more than 3 unique items for any receipe.
Proposed resource drop system
Here's a good system which mixes both elements of both random drops and yet allows players a choice of working towards their goals. I'm sure this has been done before by a couple of games although I personally can't recall exactly which games have has done this.
Whenever a player defeats a monster, you will gain item points of that monster. Gain enough item points and you can cash out for an item. Alternatively you can try gambling your currently item points to try and cash out for an item of a higher level.
E.g. A slime monster drops either a "slime item" the rarer "super slime item".
When you a defeat a slime monster you can choose to:
a) Get the Slime item
or
b) Get +10% chance of getting a super slime item
or
c) Try gambling for the super slime item.
This means after 10 battles you will definitely get the super slime item so there's a fairly clear target for the 'hard-working' player to aim for but if you're an impatient risk taker you could try gambling your points now to try and get your super slime now. I think this would work well as it reduces the uncertain in what you could get.
You could get more complicated by creating other bonuses and penalities depending on what the player chooses at the end of a battle but hopefully this gives you some idea of how you can mix and match both worlds and still get something quite reasonable and enjoyable. Being the hard working player that I am I would probably choose to constantly using the cash out option.
What then would I consider an ideal system for hunting and forging? Well here's my list of good things a good forging game should have.
1) Automatic markers and identifiers - Once you've found the monster parts/resources, the game should make it easy to find these resources again through an auto bookmark system or good automapping system. It should not be up to the player to mark the map.
2) Automatic recording receipes or hints - Whenever you find a hint or part of receipe this should automatically be recorded in your receipe
3) Less resources the better - If you require 10 leather hides to make something it means the player have to fight monsters at least 10 times, I think the maximum requirements should be no more than 3 unique items for any receipe.
Proposed resource drop system
Here's a good system which mixes both elements of both random drops and yet allows players a choice of working towards their goals. I'm sure this has been done before by a couple of games although I personally can't recall exactly which games have has done this.
Whenever a player defeats a monster, you will gain item points of that monster. Gain enough item points and you can cash out for an item. Alternatively you can try gambling your currently item points to try and cash out for an item of a higher level.
E.g. A slime monster drops either a "slime item" the rarer "super slime item".
When you a defeat a slime monster you can choose to:
a) Get the Slime item
or
b) Get +10% chance of getting a super slime item
or
c) Try gambling for the super slime item.
This means after 10 battles you will definitely get the super slime item so there's a fairly clear target for the 'hard-working' player to aim for but if you're an impatient risk taker you could try gambling your points now to try and get your super slime now. I think this would work well as it reduces the uncertain in what you could get.
You could get more complicated by creating other bonuses and penalities depending on what the player chooses at the end of a battle but hopefully this gives you some idea of how you can mix and match both worlds and still get something quite reasonable and enjoyable. Being the hard working player that I am I would probably choose to constantly using the cash out option.
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey - Game Design Review
Just finished this clocking in at 80 hours. I'm a big fan of Shin Megami Tensei fan even though I've only finished the first Shin Megami Tensei because the atmosphere and gameplay is different from your usual save the world fare, even if that's what you do in the end anyway. Warning, there are some spoilers below.
Some background about the SMT series. The gameplay is your usual dungeon crawl but with demons as enemies. Demons here includes to supernatural creatures such angels or monsters rather than specifically evil creatures. What makes it unique is your ability to converse and negotiate using your demon summoning program so you can actually convince them to give you items, macca (the money in the series), leave you alone or even join you. You also have an alignment (Law, Neutral and Chaos which determines how smoothly relationships go. As you can imagine, similarly aligned demons will treat you better than demons of an opposing alignment. In this game, you're part of a 4 vehicle investigation team entering a mysterious phenomena occurring in the Antarctic to try and stop it from growing. Unfortunately your vehicles are soon separated and you're forced to fight for survival in a mysterious demon-infested dimensions that mirror the world of humans.
Despite being a fan, I feel that Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey isn't a game to celebrate about. If you're a fan like me, you'll probably enjoy it but there are glaring issues with gameplay design and pacing really let it down. What worries me is that despite all the games inbetween the first SMT and now, the gameplay design has really evolved about half a step and taken a step back in some respects.
Issues:
Overall, if you're a fan you'll definitely enjoy the game with about 300 demons to fuse and the mostly polished skill system. It is a solid game but the issues I mentioned mean only hard core RPG players who don't mind really working for their rewards will enjoy this game. Casual players should definitely stay away.
Probably a 5/10 overall or a 7/10 if you're a fan of the series.
Some background about the SMT series. The gameplay is your usual dungeon crawl but with demons as enemies. Demons here includes to supernatural creatures such angels or monsters rather than specifically evil creatures. What makes it unique is your ability to converse and negotiate using your demon summoning program so you can actually convince them to give you items, macca (the money in the series), leave you alone or even join you. You also have an alignment (Law, Neutral and Chaos which determines how smoothly relationships go. As you can imagine, similarly aligned demons will treat you better than demons of an opposing alignment. In this game, you're part of a 4 vehicle investigation team entering a mysterious phenomena occurring in the Antarctic to try and stop it from growing. Unfortunately your vehicles are soon separated and you're forced to fight for survival in a mysterious demon-infested dimensions that mirror the world of humans.
Despite being a fan, I feel that Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey isn't a game to celebrate about. If you're a fan like me, you'll probably enjoy it but there are glaring issues with gameplay design and pacing really let it down. What worries me is that despite all the games inbetween the first SMT and now, the gameplay design has really evolved about half a step and taken a step back in some respects.
Issues:
- Storyline is linear and cliche for a Shin Megami Tensei game. There's the Law hero, the Chaos hero and then there's the Neutral Hero and its obvious who they are and what will happen eventually. The Chaos hero will continually talk about how powerless he is before being fused with a demon and becoming a half demon, the Law hero will be touched by the divine and become a messiah for the Law God or you can choose to follow the Neutral path and fight for humanity by defeating both sides.
- The standard SMT plot twist of choosing the Law, Neutral or Chaos paths occur right at the end of the game and only for the final sector in the game meaning you have to replay the entire game just to unlock that different path. Why couldn't they have created several diverging paths through the game?
- The storyline is certainly thought-provoking but I think it could have done more in some ways to express the issues a bit better, maybe with even more situations or plot development. Part of the plot revolves around another human expedition entering but only with profit in mind rather than saving humanity like your expedition which I thought was good and wondered if they could have done more of that instead. I think they killed off the other 3 ships and crew a bit too quickly rather than fully exploiting their story potential.
- The game is very hard and can be quite punishing. Due to the hard difficulty there can be hours before any real plot development occurs.
- Demons first appear as blue fuzzy images until you defeat them at least once and need to be repeated encountered or defeated or fused before you can get more info and increase your analysis. What I don't understand is when a skill is clearly weak against an enemy (it actually flashes the words 'weak'), why can't your system automatically record it down rather than requiring you to reach a certain analysis level?
- The Demon source and skill inheritance system means you can create unique demons, however once fused, it becomes difficult hard to change demon skills. Demons may occasionally change skills when they level up but the skill they gain is random. You can actually use special demons to change skills and improve stats but it is still quite tricky as those special demons need to have skills you want to transfer. This is partially solved by the demon password system where you can share demons with their skills with other players.
- Bosses are very annoying due to the rigid skill system, if you've accidentally set your demons to the wrong skills. Some people would say this adds to the challenge. I'm not one of those people.
- In the game the Demon Co-op mechanic rewards players who choose demons of the same alignment as each other however nearly all the bosses and powerful enemies, which you can fuse after defeating them once, are Chaos and Neutral demons. I was playing as Law aligned player and felt penalised as a result. There aren't any actual party or fusion restrictions due to alignment like the older games but it makes Demon Co-op less powerful when it kicks in during battle.
- There are several teleportation puzzles in the game but there's no record of which teleporters lead to which other ones. This particularly gets annoying when you have 6 or 7 rooms with 3 teleporters each.
- In the game, you have to collect forma from enemies and the environment but what you get can be random. This annoying particular with rarer demons as it is hard to predict when they will appear. They will appear in the same places usually but sometimes you have to go through 15-20 encounters bfore they appear. What makes it worse is that sometimes you need 3 or 4 of the forma from them! Also taking to or defeating normal demons won't necessarily guarantee you get the forma as enemies can drop up to 3 different kinds of items. When you consider that you might be fighting groups of enemies that are made up of two or three kinds of demons, getting that forma you want can be frustrating.
- You can dispose of forma and items in the lab to get more macca but its hard to know what forma is required to create certain weapons, armour or items unless you return back to the armour and weapons and items screen and scroll through carefully. It usually isn't an issue but some items use the same specific forma as weapons or armour.
- Moon phases do affect your demon conversation but unfortunately the system wasn't transparent enough for me to understand. Would it be good if they actually covered that.
Overall, if you're a fan you'll definitely enjoy the game with about 300 demons to fuse and the mostly polished skill system. It is a solid game but the issues I mentioned mean only hard core RPG players who don't mind really working for their rewards will enjoy this game. Casual players should definitely stay away.
Probably a 5/10 overall or a 7/10 if you're a fan of the series.
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Spirit Engine Review + Save Files
So just finished The Spirit Engine by Mark Pay. A freeware RPG game. If you love RPGs I highly recommend you get it. It's an amazing effort and I think still stands the test of time. By the way, I enjoyed it way more than playing Quake 4.
Download it from the official site here:
The Spirit Engine
Don't forget you can download the music for free at Josh Whelchel's site here:
Spirit Engine OST
The game has good writing, good story, good pacing, good grahpics and I only get stuck in a couple of places and had to level up a little. Which is good because I can't stand training for too long.
Anyway, here are a couple of gameplay and interface issues I noticed with the game which mar this otherwise great freeware classic. Most of these issues are fixed in the Sequel The Spirit Engine 2 so take this as a lesson in what not to do in an RPG.
1) Save points cost gold - Games like Resident Evil did the same thing with limited saves and was the game better for it? I don't think so. Furthermore, save points cost more money the further you travel into a world. The thing is the game has a sneak/run past function allowing you to cross completed areas without engaging in battle. So what I ended up doing was using that to travel back towards a free or cheaper save point to do so. It just means more pointless clicking for the gamer.
2) Skill chains are hard to change - You can save up to 3 skill chains and toggle between them mid-battle on the fly but the better option is to enter the skill menu causing the game to pause and then changing it. Entering the skill menu is much better because it gives you greater control over what you want the characters to do.
3) Skill chains are hard to track while in combat - Because the timing is different depending on the skill used you don't really know where on the skill chain your character is. i.e. is the character performing skill 1, skill 2 or skill 3? It's easy to tell if you've specified all of them to be different. E.g Life Drain, Chain Magic, Kinetic Shield. But if you're like me and have a chain such as Life drain, Life Drain, Kinetic shield and need to change it, it gets troublesome. Is my Wizard on the first Life Drain or the second?
4) Pointless underground graphics - One of the unique aspects of The Spirit Engine is the fact that the game takes place from a side-on perspective similar to platformers. I am very curious why Mark Pay bothered to create graphics showing the underground. i.e. tree roots and buried rocks. It certainly is interesting but honestly I would have preferred some sort of additional GUI interfaces to help address the above issues as covered above.
5) More descriptions required in the menu - When buying an item, a very creative text by the merchant gives you a rough idea about what the item's special properties are for. Unfortunately after buying it there is no indication of what it actually does except for an asterisk next to its name. You have to exit the current game and check out the included help file for a more detail description. Annoying as there seems to be plenty of empty space in the game and equipment menus that could have used for it so it's curious as to why this was done. Maybe something to with memory issues?
6) Skills were unlocked too soon - You obtain access to all the skills early on in the game there really isn't anything to look forward to. I was kind of hoping to see some super powerful attacks or something but unfortunately these never materialised which is a shame. I think maybe one special ultimate per character would have been cool. Not a big deal but would have been icing on the cake.
7) Larger inventory needed - There are a fair number talismans and pieces of equipment in the game. It would have been nice to be able to have a larger inventory to actually keep most of them!
7) Music instruments are a bit too artificial - First of the actual melodies are actually quite pleasant, I do feel Josh Whelchel does need make the music instruments less artificial and sharper. I can't really complain although because it's free free free!
This wasn't quite fixed in The Spirit Engine 2 unfortunately. I guess I was hoping for Playstation 1 type music but still getting music that's sort of more similar to Sega Megadrive and SNES music.
The Spirit Engine Troubleshooting
Crashing to desktop after battle
A very common bug in the game is where your game crashes to the desktop after battle. This usually happens about 30-45 minutes of playing without exiting the game. This bug is due to how the program engine interfaces with newer windows. The only way around this is quit the game completely and re-enter it. I usually do this after I reach a save point.
Screen too small in Windows XP
You have to right click and set to resolution to run at 640x480 resolution on the "The Spirit Engine.EXE" file.
The Spirit Engine Save Files
You can download my Spirit Engine save files here in case you would like to replay the last level, defeat the last boss and watch the ending again.
Spirit Engine Save Files
The characters I used were:
Download it from the official site here:
The Spirit Engine
Don't forget you can download the music for free at Josh Whelchel's site here:
Spirit Engine OST
The game has good writing, good story, good pacing, good grahpics and I only get stuck in a couple of places and had to level up a little. Which is good because I can't stand training for too long.
Anyway, here are a couple of gameplay and interface issues I noticed with the game which mar this otherwise great freeware classic. Most of these issues are fixed in the Sequel The Spirit Engine 2 so take this as a lesson in what not to do in an RPG.
1) Save points cost gold - Games like Resident Evil did the same thing with limited saves and was the game better for it? I don't think so. Furthermore, save points cost more money the further you travel into a world. The thing is the game has a sneak/run past function allowing you to cross completed areas without engaging in battle. So what I ended up doing was using that to travel back towards a free or cheaper save point to do so. It just means more pointless clicking for the gamer.
2) Skill chains are hard to change - You can save up to 3 skill chains and toggle between them mid-battle on the fly but the better option is to enter the skill menu causing the game to pause and then changing it. Entering the skill menu is much better because it gives you greater control over what you want the characters to do.
3) Skill chains are hard to track while in combat - Because the timing is different depending on the skill used you don't really know where on the skill chain your character is. i.e. is the character performing skill 1, skill 2 or skill 3? It's easy to tell if you've specified all of them to be different. E.g Life Drain, Chain Magic, Kinetic Shield. But if you're like me and have a chain such as Life drain, Life Drain, Kinetic shield and need to change it, it gets troublesome. Is my Wizard on the first Life Drain or the second?
4) Pointless underground graphics - One of the unique aspects of The Spirit Engine is the fact that the game takes place from a side-on perspective similar to platformers. I am very curious why Mark Pay bothered to create graphics showing the underground. i.e. tree roots and buried rocks. It certainly is interesting but honestly I would have preferred some sort of additional GUI interfaces to help address the above issues as covered above.
5) More descriptions required in the menu - When buying an item, a very creative text by the merchant gives you a rough idea about what the item's special properties are for. Unfortunately after buying it there is no indication of what it actually does except for an asterisk next to its name. You have to exit the current game and check out the included help file for a more detail description. Annoying as there seems to be plenty of empty space in the game and equipment menus that could have used for it so it's curious as to why this was done. Maybe something to with memory issues?
6) Skills were unlocked too soon - You obtain access to all the skills early on in the game there really isn't anything to look forward to. I was kind of hoping to see some super powerful attacks or something but unfortunately these never materialised which is a shame. I think maybe one special ultimate per character would have been cool. Not a big deal but would have been icing on the cake.
7) Larger inventory needed - There are a fair number talismans and pieces of equipment in the game. It would have been nice to be able to have a larger inventory to actually keep most of them!
7) Music instruments are a bit too artificial - First of the actual melodies are actually quite pleasant, I do feel Josh Whelchel does need make the music instruments less artificial and sharper. I can't really complain although because it's free free free!
This wasn't quite fixed in The Spirit Engine 2 unfortunately. I guess I was hoping for Playstation 1 type music but still getting music that's sort of more similar to Sega Megadrive and SNES music.
The Spirit Engine Troubleshooting
Crashing to desktop after battle
A very common bug in the game is where your game crashes to the desktop after battle. This usually happens about 30-45 minutes of playing without exiting the game. This bug is due to how the program engine interfaces with newer windows. The only way around this is quit the game completely and re-enter it. I usually do this after I reach a save point.
Screen too small in Windows XP
You have to right click and set to resolution to run at 640x480 resolution on the "The Spirit Engine.EXE" file.
The Spirit Engine Save Files
You can download my Spirit Engine save files here in case you would like to replay the last level, defeat the last boss and watch the ending again.
Spirit Engine Save Files
The characters I used were:
- Clara
- Edward
- Matthieu
Sunday, 28 February 2010
Zelda III: Link's Awakening (GBA version)
As part of my retro gaming experience I've been playing through Zelda I, II and III. I never really had a chance to play the games as a kid so this was my chance to experience them. Zelda I was fairly fun. It was simple yet fun somehow. Zelda II was a rather poor challenging experience and frankly not particularly memorial for me. Starting on Zelda III (GBA version) I went in expecting a fun game in the same way Zelda I had been. I had played the first hour of the game sometime back and was impressed and was eager to actually finish the game.
I knew Zelda had a huge world to explore and plenty of dungeons and secrets but as I played it, I realised that the game designers had designed the game way too hard in my opinion. The rooms are way too small and often filled with invincible enemies. Touching an enemy results in an instant deduction of life and finding hearts to refill your heart meter is very hard! Part of the reason these problems exist is because the screen is much smaller compared to a television which the original SNES would have plugged into.
It wouldn't be so bad if there were set checkpoints where your health gets refilled like in Super Metroid but the fairy pools are far and few in between and aren't marked on the map.
It's a little cryptic in someplaces although there is an in game fortune teller to tell you what to do for a small fee. Its the kind of game where you are almost certain to fail the first time you play through a dungeon or need to return to the entrance to scour the main world for more health and magic potions or some special magical item to help boost your abilites. To be fair, this was probably a very forgiving game back in the day compared to some other games (like Megaman or Castlevania) but I don't think a modern gamer who grew up playing Nintendo Gamecube or Playstation 2 games would get much out of the experience. I would definitely recommend trying it out to see what an older Zelda is like and understand the roots of the series. I suspect that most modern gamers would probably give up after about 5 or 6 hours in.
You have been duly warned!
I knew Zelda had a huge world to explore and plenty of dungeons and secrets but as I played it, I realised that the game designers had designed the game way too hard in my opinion. The rooms are way too small and often filled with invincible enemies. Touching an enemy results in an instant deduction of life and finding hearts to refill your heart meter is very hard! Part of the reason these problems exist is because the screen is much smaller compared to a television which the original SNES would have plugged into.
It wouldn't be so bad if there were set checkpoints where your health gets refilled like in Super Metroid but the fairy pools are far and few in between and aren't marked on the map.
It's a little cryptic in someplaces although there is an in game fortune teller to tell you what to do for a small fee. Its the kind of game where you are almost certain to fail the first time you play through a dungeon or need to return to the entrance to scour the main world for more health and magic potions or some special magical item to help boost your abilites. To be fair, this was probably a very forgiving game back in the day compared to some other games (like Megaman or Castlevania) but I don't think a modern gamer who grew up playing Nintendo Gamecube or Playstation 2 games would get much out of the experience. I would definitely recommend trying it out to see what an older Zelda is like and understand the roots of the series. I suspect that most modern gamers would probably give up after about 5 or 6 hours in.
You have been duly warned!
Sunday, 21 February 2010
Spirit Engine 2 now free
Monday, 27 April 2009
Mother 3 Translation
Mother, or Earthbound as it is known in the US is a fairly successful series in Japan. It's an RPG which takes place in a fairly modern setting where the main characters use baseball bats and everyday items to attack. Only Earthbound (number 2 in the Mother series) ever made it in English. I've finished Earthbound but I didn't really think too much of it frankly. Games like Breath of Fire, Persona and Final Fantasy appeal to me more I guess.
Anyway, Mother 3 was released on the Gameboy Advance and the English fan translation was recently completed. I've played about the first hour of the game and I still don't understand why everyone thinks its great. Perhaps its charm lies in the almost serene clear nature of the game, the eco-friendly themes, the simple graphics that harken back to a more innocent time along with the concepts of a warm loving nuclear family. Who knows? I prefer games like Shin Megami Tensei with its serious dark tones and philosophical underpinnings.
Anyway, go check out the translation patch here.
Anyway, Mother 3 was released on the Gameboy Advance and the English fan translation was recently completed. I've played about the first hour of the game and I still don't understand why everyone thinks its great. Perhaps its charm lies in the almost serene clear nature of the game, the eco-friendly themes, the simple graphics that harken back to a more innocent time along with the concepts of a warm loving nuclear family. Who knows? I prefer games like Shin Megami Tensei with its serious dark tones and philosophical underpinnings.
Anyway, go check out the translation patch here.
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